Where's My Dolly?
by silver-hedgehog
Summary: When Leaf recieves a mysterious doll, strange things start to happen around town. Her parents are in a coma; Gary's gone and her close friend is murdered. Leaf has to solve what's happening. And fast. ORS and bits of CS.
1. A Mysterious Package

**Where's My Dolly?**

Okay, I've decided to write a Halloween fic so it will have some... Not really scary parts; just unusual or freaky- depends on how you interpret it. Hope you'll like it.

Disclaimer: I don't own Pokémon (But for future reference, just see profile)

Prologue: A mysterious Package.

As soon as the sound of the alarm clock rung, a small hand with silky smooth skin reached out from under the white, cotton bed covers for it and not long after that, an object hitting a wall sounded loud and clear throughout the house.

Leaf wasn't exactly thrilled about breaking an alarm clock so often but, in her opinion, it had to be done. Those things were like immobile devils.

She threw back the bed covers and got out of her warm, soft mattress and she could really feel the cold rush of the morning air in her room hit her. That was something that she was going to have to get rid of by shutting her room window; she didn't even remember opening it last night.

Stumbling into the bathroom down the hall, she could hear her mother stopping the mailman from doing his job once again and her father humming to the song on the radio. It seemed like it was going to be another typical day.

After she had dressed herself into something school appropriate such as a red tartan skirt and a tight white top with a white bow embedded onto it and a pair of black flats to match, she headed down stairs and into the kitchen, where her parents were and more importantly, where her breakfast of chocolate milk and chocolate cereals with extra sugar was.

"Morning." she greeted but to her surprise, both her parents were gone already despite being able to hear their voices just a few minutes ago. Leaf looked at the clock on her wall. No wonder they were gone already, it turns out she was running late. Stupid alarm clock, but it did just prove her point of them being immobile devils; they don't even do their job right!

She was about to leave when a moderately sized box that sat on the table caught her eyes, and being the nosey person she is, she decided to see who the package was for. She thought it was weird when the first line of the package read her name: _Miss_ _Leaf Green_.

'Well, if the package is mine, I should open it.' She thought to herself before she tore of the layer of tape off and pulled out an object completely covered in bubble wrap. She stopped to pop some of the bubble wrap before proceeding to remove it and under all that was a doll, a porcelain doll.

The doll wore a lacy cream coloured dress and had curly dark blond locks, just like how most of dolls of this type tend to have. The shoes on her feet were flat and red while her eyes were a very nice shade of blue.

'I don't remember buying a doll.' She thought to herself. Trying to find a return address, Leaf wanted to suss out where the doll was sent from but shrugged off the thought when she could not find one and ran up to her room instead, where she placed the doll sitting, leaning against the mirror of her vanity. After that, she left.

* * *

She skipped down the hall and took a seat once she reached her homeroom. She had barely sat down properly when her friends called her.

"You seem even more cheery than usual." May said, "Why?" she asked, leaning in for an added intimidation effect, though, it rarely worked.

Leaf gave her a really wide smile. "It's almost Halloween."

May thought about that. "So it is!" she reached into her bag and pulled out her planner and double checked.

Dawn sat down beside her. "So what is?" she asked.

"Halloween." May and Leaf replied in unison.

Dawn thought about it. "Really?"

May and Leaf nodded but Leaf's action was much more frantic and awake looking.

Just then the teacher walked in with a cup of coffee in one hand and his briefcase (that was usually empty) in the other. He looked up to see which of the student weren't in after he placed his coffee down on the table and his but onto his reclining, black seat, which Leaf often feared was going to give into his weight at any time.

"Where is Oak?" he bellowed after he had figured out that he wasn't there.

All the students except Leaf slid further down into their seat, after all, this teacher was known to shout and was very aggressive, strict and down right grumpy; all the more of a reason for Gary and Leaf to pull pranks on.

Leaf felt a kick on the back of her seat, which caused her jump upwards. She looked to the seat behind and saw May look away but when she turned round, she was quick to figure out why. The teacher was hovering over her desk, casting a daunting shadow over her.

"Answer my question, Green." he demanded loudly, "I know you're very close to Oak."

Leaf thought about what Gary said to her while they walked home yesterday. It was at times like these when she really wished that she had listened instead of being distracted by the shine of his new watch, which by the way, she still had.

"I can honestly say I don't know." Leaf answered, completely oblivious to the teacher's scary glare. She had a hand on her chin and was doing a thinking pose.

The class could hear him mutter something that sounded like: "For once." Then, he turned around and walked away disapprovingly, like how he walked whenever he was happy or sad.

'That's a good question.' Leaf thought to herself, 'Where is he?'

* * *

Up until lunch break, time seemed to be unusually slow moving and to make things worse, Gary had not returned Leaf's text messages. She raised her wrist up and looked at the time on Gary's watch. It had been barely a minute since she last checked it. She could feel this typical day turning out to be a drag – fast.

When she had finally bought her lunch, she headed to her table where she usually sat with her friends May, Dawn and occasionally Misty.

"What took you so long?" Dawn asked as she took another bite out of her plain cheese sandwich.

"Lines are HUGE!" she exaggerated, using her arms to help her emphasise out the length. She prodded at her cheese and tomato pasta with her fork and was about to eat a bit when she saw a figure in the canteen that sure looked a lot like Gary's. "Hey, he's here after all!" she exclaimed before jumping out of her seat and running over to him.

"Gary!" she yelled as she tried to stop her feet from skidding as she approached him. "You're not dead after all." she added while she tried to stop herself from sliding into him and causing a collision.

He stuck his hands out slightly and caught her by her elbows. "That's a pretty obvious observation you've made there." he pointed out.

"Where were you? You didn't text back." She narrowed her eyes at him.

He shrugged. "I left my phone in my locker... And I left my watch in your possession." he added after he saw his watch on her wrist, "I was wondering where I left that."

Leaf just gave him a really wide smile, like how she did so earlier.

Meanwhile...

"Stupid canteen... They're not supposed to run out of food." May returned to the table that she usually sat at with her friends and noticed that only two of them were there. "Where's Leaf?" she asked as she sat down.

Dawn pointed over to the middle of the canteen where Leaf and Gary were talking... And still holding onto each other's arms.

"Childhood best friends." Dawn said in envy, "She claims that but not from where we stand... Or in this case, sit. Just look at how cute they are together." she made a heart with her hands and raised them so that inside it was Gary and Leaf. She let out a dreamy sigh.

May on the other hand, had more important priorities in her mind. She sat there eyeing up Leaf's lunch before she plucked up the courage to take the plunge and steal Leaf it.

"May!" Misty yelled.

"What?" she said just before the pasta reached her mouth.

"That's not yours." Misty pointed out.

"But Leaf's not eating it and the canteen ran out of food again!" she defended.

"Misty, just let her eat it." suggested a masculine voice that was too familiar to May and not in a good way, "She has no impulse control anyway." he flicked his hair back in the same way he did every day and boy did it get on May's nerves.

"I do too have impulse control!" she shouted at him while he started to walk away. May followed him, yelling at him while she walked.

"I love how they always do that." Dawn commented as she watched May and Drew's figures became smaller and smaller.

"Tell me about." Misty said.

"Okay!"

* * *

It was the end of the school day. Leaf walked beside Gary while he checked his phone for missed calls or messages and saying he had some would be an understatement. He read most of them and looked at Leaf.

"How many messages did you send, no, bombard me with?" Gary asked, clearing the inbox of his phone.

"Wouldn't have needed to if you told me where you were, like how you always do." Leaf countered casually.

Gary sighed. "I told you that like what, twenty four hours ago?" he said rhetorically, "I was doing driving test."

Leaf tried to think back to yesterday. "You should know not to distract me with shiny things." she pointed out. "We've known each other since we were two and you're still making a rookie mistake. Tsk tsk."

Gary ignored her last comment and read yet another message from the same sender. "What's this about a doll?"

Leaf suddenly remembered the doll and told him all about her morning. Only a small percentage of her story was related to her new Porcelain doll, of course.

"That's weird. Was there a return address?" he inquired.

Leaf shook her head frantically. "Nope but it's pretty so I left her sitting on my vanity before I left this morning." she recalled, "Come over and I'll show you."

Gary shrugged. "Sure."

"I'm home!" Leaf shouted when she made it home with Gary behind her. But no response.

"Hm, that's strange. Your parents are always home before you are." Gary said as he headed for the staircase.

"They usually are..." she followed him up the stairs, "I'm going to the bathroom first, and I'll meet you in my room in a minute."

Gary nodded and proceeded to walk into her room. Once inside, he realised that Leaf hadn't cleaned her room (again) but he ignored that and went straight towards the doll, which was standing on the vanity.

"That's odd." Gary thought aloud.

"What is?" Leaf asked as she entered her room.

"I thought you said the doll was sitting against your mirror," Gary remembered as he handed Leaf the doll, "Not standing."

"I did leave it sitting on th-"

Gary interrupted her. "And more importantly, I thought you said her eyes were 'a beautiful shade of blue'." He repeated, quoting what she had said in her texts.

"They ar-" Leaf stopped herself from finishing her sentence this time when she looked into her doll's eyes.

The eyes appeared to be green.

* * *

This is my first chapter so not much happened in it but I hope you liked it so reviewing would be a great way to tell me that... You get the hint, right?

*silver-hedgehog

**Edited: 13/03/12**


	2. Where did I put it?

**Where's My Dolly?**

For anyone who's still reading this, I want to say thanks and I'm quite keen on completing this fic next as I have the plot completely planned in my head! Also, chapter 1 was up before but it somehow duplicated the prologue so I had to rewrite it and that was annoying, anyway, I'll let you read now.

"Character speaking"

'Character thinking'

_News report/ notes/ books_

Disclaimer: See profile if you care.

**Chapter 1: Where did I put it?**

Leaf picked up the doll and started looking all over it. "I was so sure that the eyes on this thing were blue, and a beautiful shade of it too." she gently handed the doll over to Gary.

He inspected it too. "Why are you so sure?" he looked away from the doll and at his friend.

"Because it had that nice shine in it like how yours do." Leaf explained, though the last bit was not supposed to slip out.

Gary gave her his trademark 'I told you I was right look'.

"All those times you stared at me I knew you just wanted to look into my eyes. You know my eye colour so well because you-"

"Because I'm your best friend and I see you like every day." Leaf finished for him, "And dream on, I don't have a crush on you."

Gary raised an eyebrow at her as he handed her the doll. "So you say, but we all know you keep secrets." He said in one of his more seductive voices as he moved in on Leaf, who prodded one of his sides. "I wish you'd stop doing that." Gary muttered after he stepped back, giving Leaf her personal space back.

"You brought it on yourself, Mr head-over-heels-in love-with-me." Leaf gave her doll's hair a quick brush before leaving her room. "I'm hungry."

"I am not!" He protested, "But I know you wish I was." He added, his seductive tone returning once again. Gary followed Leaf down as he spoke. He made himself comfy on the cream, leather couch and switched on their flat screen. The first thing that came on was the news, not what he'd usually choose to watch but it would have to do for now. He had just tossed the remote back onto the table which he used as his footrest.

Leaf was in the kitchen looking for food but there was none. 'Strange,' Leaf thought to herself, 'Dad always keeps the fridge full, after all he is a foodie.' But despite the house being foodless, there was a strange smell in the kitchen. It smelt like fresh, uncooked meat. Leaf ignored it, she was sure that her parents would get it sorted when they smelt it. She left the cabinet doors open, re-entered the living room and looked at the television screen. News?

"Gary? Why are you watching th-"

"Shh." He replied with a finger to his lips, treating Leaf like a child. "Listen."

_There are no clues as to who broke into the Pallet Town Laboratories and stole the underdeveloped project yet but a full investigation will be launched by Officer Jenny and her team of trained professionals. _

"Did you hear that." Gary asked, "Gramps' lab was broken into. That would explain his absence this morning." He added, a relatively serious look present on his face.

Leaf took a seat beside him. "Your grampa's lab was broken into and you just found out?" she asked him in a pretend over-dramatic tone.

Gary shot her a look. "Your parents are top researchers there and you didn't know either, why are you so shocked that I didn't know."

"Maybe because you live less than a mile away from it," Leaf pointed out, "And your gramps runs it. What was the project anyway?"

"I don't know but you came in here empty handed so I'm guessing there's no food?" Gary looked at Leaf, who nodded. "Then let's go to mine." They both got up and headed out the door.

xxxxxx

Leaf unlocked the door to her house. What was supposed to be a trip to Gary's house for food ended up turning into a full on dinner trip. It was barely nine and all the light in the house were out.

"I'm home." she called out but no response.

She went into the kitchen to get a drink when she realised her parents had not came home from work. She knew because the cabinet doors were still wide open, just like how she left them and the unsettling smell was still there, possibly even stronger than before.

Leaf closed all the cabinet doors before grabbing a mug from one of them and pouring water from the large, filled jug. Out of the corner of her eye, she noticed something that looked out of place: her new doll. She move towards it casually and picked it up. "What are you doing down here?" she asked, as if the doll was a living creature, "I thought I left you up stairs."

Leaf ignored her own questions and grabbed the doll as she skipped out of the kitchen, through the living room and up the stairs. Leaf flattened her doll's blonde locks before resting it against the mirror on her vanity. It was just past nine so Leaf decided to shower then maybe call it a day, after all she actually participated in P.E. today.

She turned on the hot water, once in the bathroom and then removed her clothes from her petite body before stepping into the bathtub of scolding hot water. Leaf winced slightly at the temperature but proceeded into the bathtub anyway before picking up a bottle of strawberry scented shower gel and giving it a big squeeze to make lots of aromatic bubbles.

The bath felt nice but after sitting in it for a good half hour or so, the water began to cool and the bubbles began to pop. She pulled on her pyjamas which consisted of a pair of white cotton shorts with a pink ribbon, a pink strappy top. It was comfy and cute and it matched her pink and white slippers.

Her bedroom felt really warm now so she headed over to her window, tripping over something in the process: her doll. Leaf assumed that it feel off her vanity by the door when she closed it earlier so she put it down in a more stable position this time, sitting down. She opened her window and inhaled deeply before climbing into her bed and burying herself into the warmth of the duvet like most nights.

"Good night." she said to herself.

xxxxxx

There was a stir. A pale hand moved from under the duvet to reach the alarm clock that was resting on the bedside drawer but instead, it felt something silky? Leaf sat up on her bed to see that it was... Her doll?

The brunette rubbed her eyes and looked again. It was indeed her doll that she was positive that she had left on her vanity before going to bed last night. And why did it feel warm in her bedroom? She looked towards her window and realised that it was closed but figured her mother must have shut it when she came home last night, and placed her doll on her bedside table.

Leaf's gaze shifted from the window to her alarm clock. It took Leaf's brain awhile to realise that the small hand was almost on the nine and the longer one was pointing towards the eight, which meant that she was running late again. There was no way she was going to be able to get up, shower, dress and walk the fifteen minute walk to school before nine o'clock, the time that her class starts. She figured she would be late anyway so she took her time.

xxxxxx

It was after ten o'clock when Leaf made it to school's reception dressed in a pair of demin shorts over her leggings that came down to just under her knees and a yellow t-shirt with a picture of Snoopy on it with a pair of converse to finish it off. It would not usually take her that long to get ready in the morning but she decided to take a detour and stop for cookies, buying lots of them in different flavours including her personal favourite, white chocolate and raspberry cookies.

She walked up to the receptionist and signed in before heading off to her second period class: advanced biology. Leaf didn't particularly find biology interesting but she was good at it, with her parents being scientists it was hard for Leaf to not be good at the sciences. She preferred physics to any of the sciences and maths but she missed the class due to her forgetfulness last night.

Leaf entered her classroom, which had single desks, took a seat by the window and unpacked while she waited for the rest of the class to arrive.

May entered shortly after. She looked angered as she took the seat beside Leaf and pulled out her folder from her bag. A bit of paper made its way onto May's desk and she grabbed it and read it.

_Do you want a cookie? It'll make you feel better :D_

May looked at the sender, who was now holding a white paper bag filled with different flavour of cookies. It brightened up May's look straight away as Leaf handed her a chocolate chip cookie, one of May's favourite. She ate it before the teacher had a chance to notice it. "Thanks." May said. "I needed that."

"It's fine." Leaf said, "And who agitated you this time?" she asked as she turned in her seat so that her back was against the window.

"Who else?" May asked rhetorically, "Drew Hayden, that's who! He kept flicking his hair and putting me down! And he stole my pencil case and put it on the top of those wall cabinets so I had to stand on the back desks wearing this." May stood up and showed Leaf what she was talking about. May wore a pleated red mini skirt with no tights or leggings on underneath; only a pair on black knee length socks and her red flats.

Leaf looked shocked. "You didn't climb up to get it did you?"

May's annoyed look came back. "I hate that guy."

Leaf looked at her. "Do you want another cookie?" She gave May her cute smile that flashed all her pearly whites, which were surprisingly not decayed by all the sugar she eats every day.

May accepted her friend's offer and ate another cookie of the same variety.

Leaf smiled at her friend who seemed to have somewhat cheered up but Leaf lost her smile when a certain brunet walked past her seat, taking the bag of cookies with him.

"Gary!" Leaf whined as she watched him put her cookies in his bag.

"Miss Green!" The teacher said, "No shouting in my class and sit properly, class is beginning." she turned round and face the board, writing down a whole load of information for the students to copy down before she started to explain.

Leaf sat in her seat and stared out the window. She was in her dreamland again when a paper ball hit the centre of the back of her head. She turned round to look at the culprit, who looked from her, to the ball, and back, signalling for her to pick it up and read it, which she did.

_Meet me after maths fourth period if you want to see the rest of your cookies._

Leaf wrote a simple "okay" followed by a "Ps. I know how many are in there" back and started to scrawl down the notes on the board. She wondered why he wanted to see her.

* * *

I should mention this before I forget but this is a slight AU setting as Pokemon do exist but they are used as pets and food.

And can anyone think of a reason why Gary wants to see Leaf?

Edited: 13/03/12


	3. Remember?

**Where's My Dolly?**

Finally! I finished the third chapter. I apologise to anyone who has been waiting. Sorry.

**But before you read**, I would lie to point out that the second chapter has been changed because I don't what I did to the first copy that I had originally posted and I could not remember what happened in it so I had to redo it. I would read it again just in case.

Disclaimer: I only own the plot.

**Chapter 2: Remember?**

Leaf did as she was told and met up with Gary during lunch. He did not tell her where they were going, all he did was grab her wrist (but not tightly) and started to walk out of the building before he released her wrist, using his hands to cover her eyes instead. They started to walk a little bit further.

"Where are you taking me and more importantly what did you do to my cookies!" Leaf demanded to know. She didn't get any verbal answers but she did continue to walk and turn whenever she felt Gary make her.

Gary laughed at his friend's impatientness, "You can't wait for like what? Another two seconds?" He asked her as he took the final turn and stopped walking. "When I count to three I'm going to remove my hands. One." He started slowly, "Two. Three."

Leaf practically yanked Gary's hands from her face and looked at what was infront of her. "My cookies!" She yelled as she took a few steps forward and lifted the bag off the surface of a car and opened it up, counting how many of them were left. Nine. They were all still there.

Gary shook his head, "What's under the bag."

Leaf raised the bag and looked under it. "My hand." She answered flatly, causing Gary to shake his head again. "Air?" she guessed.

"Wrong. I meant before you picked the bag up." He tried to make things easier for his friend despite her being one of the smartest students in school, she did lack common sense. He took his gaze of her and back to the red convertible that was right in front of them.

"A car, quite a nice one too." Leaf answered as she looked at Gary, wondering if the car was suppose to mean something to her.

"Leaf?" Gary said, "Doesn't this car look familiar to you."

*FLASHBACK*

Leaf made herself comfortable on Gary's double bed like she did everytime she came to his. She had already kicked her flats off, moved his pillows so ythat they were sitting upwards and leaning her back on them while her legs were underneath the white duvet.

Gary was sitting on his black chair and was on the internet, looking for a nice car that he would get, courtesy of his grampa. He spun round on the chair and looked at Leaf, while moving the chair out of the way ever-so-slightly so that she could see the image on the monitor.

Leaf looked at it. "That's pretty." She said to Gary.

The image was of a red convertible.

*END FLASHBACK*

Leaf suddenly realised where she had seen it. "It's the car you showed me a picture of last night!"

Gary nodded. "Finally. Slowpoke's finally got it." He said, earning him a glare from Leaf but the look disappeared quite quickly when he offered to drive her home after school.

_ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ x

The door to the Green residence swung open. Leaf happily skipped in with Gary following, closing the door gently behind him. Meanwhile Leaf had already made it to the top of the stairs and was approaching her room when she halted at the realisation of something.

Gary had made it up the stairs too, and looked at his friend, who was just standing there staring at her room door. "Something wrong?" He asked her. He had walked up to her and stopped when he was a mere few centimeters away.

"I was so sure that I had shut my room door this morning." Leaf replied as she slowly crept foreward and pushed her door further open, allowing her and Gary to enter and she gasped when she saw her room.

Gary looked at what caused her to gasp. Leaf's room was a complete mess- not that it was ever tidy. Her perfume bottles were all smashed and lying on her floor, the drawers had been yanked right out of their rightful slots and her matress was practically on the floor rather than the bed frame, which was now made up of several pieces.

"What happened?" Gary asked as he looked around, "I know you're messy but this is not like you."

Leaf inspected her bed frame. She moved closer so that her leg was right next to one of the snapped bits of the wooden frame. "I am not messy!" Leaf protested as she looked at her wodrobe door which was hanging of its hinge. Her clothers were all over the floor too.

"Just keep believing that." Gary said to her as he looked at her vanity, which was suspiciously, the only bit of furniture that was still intact. But his attention was removed from the vanity when he heard a crash from the room beneath them, the kitchen.

"What was that?" Leaf asked as she tried to get out from the spot she was standing in. "Oww." She cried as she looked down to see that part of her skin had caught onto the broken wood.

Gary looked over and offered her a hand. "Come on, if you leave it too long you're gonna lose a lot of blood or get it infected."

Leaf took his hand and leaped out of the small, cluttered spot that she was standing on. "It's at time like these when you really sound like your gramps."

Gary pulled a face at her. "I do not." He protested and led Leaf out of the room and into the bathroom. Gary helped Leaf sit on the edge of the bathtub before he pulled out the first aid box.

Leaf sat down and waited like a good girl for once while Gary carefully wrapped the bandage round her calf. He was kneeling while he tended her wound and he did not stand up until he was done. He returned the bottle of disinfectant and bandages back into the first aid box and closed it.

Leaf stood up. "I wonder what that noise downstairs was."

Gary turned to face her. "Let's go find out." He started to head down the stairs with Leaf following closely behind, she had her hands on Gary's shoulder while.

Once they were in the kitchen, they realised that someone must have been here and those people were not Leaf's parents. The kitchen was like Leaf's bedroom: a mess. Everything was broken, things were out of their rightful places and the window was open with her doll lying on the window sill.

"Oh. My. God." Leaf said in shock. "What hapened in here." She limped forward, picked up her doll and.

Gary walked over to Leaf. "Who did you offend?" He asked as he helped her out of the kitchen, into the sitting room and onto the couch.

"No one!" Leaf exclaimed, "I'm not you. I don't go about hitting on other guy's girlfriends!"

Gary gave her another look. "I don't do that!" He defended, "And I'm hurt that you would accuse me of doing something like that."

Leaf looked at him with a raised eyebrow. "It wouldn't be accusing if it's the truth."

Gary stood up in a fake upset manner. "Well I'm just going to leave you here." He looked at Leaf's reaction before he started to walk away from the sofa ever-so-slightly.

Leaf gave him a blank stare...

Gary knew Leaf's loo all too well. It was one that Leaf had developed and used against him since she was little. Gary's attention was soon drawn from her face to her grumbling stomach which caused him to laugh at her. He offered her his hand. "Come on, you can come to mine for dinner again."

Leaf flashed Gary her 'victory grin' and leaned forward to take Gary's hand, but missed.

He had withdrawn his hand. Sometimes, he loves to watch Leaf fall flat on her face.

_ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ x

"I'm home." Gary shouted as he entered his house with Leaf limping behind him.

"Where have you been?" Called out a feminine voice from the sitting room.

Gary and Leaf headed into the sitting room to find Gary's older sister May sitting on the biggest, leather sofa in the room with her head reasting on her latest boyfriend's chest. On his usual brown armchair in front of the filled bookcase sat Gary's grandpa. He had a tattered looking book on his lap but his reading glasses were absent from his face.

"At Leaf's. Her house looks like it has been trashed by May when she gets rejected." Gary said as he sat on the on the cream coloured sofa that was infront of another white bookcase that was built into the wall.

Leaf sat next to him and smiled at May and Professor Oak, who both returned the look.

May sat up and flicked her long, silky brown locks over her shoulder. "That has never happened before!" She said defensively.

"Keep telling yourself that." Gary replied, not paying attention to her but to the fruit bowl instead. He picked up a red apple and started to eat it. "By the way, I invited Leaf over for dinner."

May let out a sly smirk, "So my lil' bro has finally pluced up the courage to ask lil' Leafy out." May absolutely loved to tease Gary about his relationship with Leaf. The truth is, May really wants her brother and Leaf to get together already. She had watched both of them grow up and it was evident to her that Gary and Leaf may actually like each other.

"She wishes." Gary replied as his attention was still focused on his apple.

Leaf shot Gary a glare but he missed it.

"She's here because her bedroom has been completely obliterated," He took another bite out of the apple, "The kitchen is too."

"Oh my," The professor gasped, "How did that happen?"

"I don't know." Leaf answered, "But I left a note for my parents."

Professor Oak perked up at the mention of Leaf's parents. "Where are they? I haven't seen them since the morning after the lab was robbed."

Leaf's expression suddenly changed to a look of suspicion and so did Gary's. They looked at each other.

"If my parents aren't at the lab, then where are they?" Leaf wondered as her eyes widened with worry.

Gary was about to offer Leaf a hug but was beaten to it when May practically smuggled her into one of her deep, comfort hugs. "Don't worry Leaf." May hates Leaf's worried look. She has always treated Leaf like her own little sister. "You can stay here until your parents return."

Leaf accepted the older girl's offer.

Gary shook his head. 'She just loves being around other people.'

_ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ x

Leaf rummaged around in her bag for her hairbrush. She found it after awhile and pulled it out along with her doll, which for once, she knew where it was. She had shoved it in her bag before she left her house with Gary earlier.

"l wonder where mum and dad are." Leaf asked her doll before placing it on the bedside table in the guest room that she was staying in for the night.

_ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ x

I hope you all like this chapter. I promise more exciting stuff in the next chapter when Leaf… And when she finds…

Haha! I'm not spilling anything! But please review. Even if it's with one word only!


	4. Bad Day

**Where's My Dolly?**

Another chapter already! That was unusually fast thanks to my inspiration and the free time I have manage to make.

Okay, I would just like to say that the 'k' on my keypad if quite stiff so some words that should have a 'k' in it might be lacking them. However, I did try to fix them but do tell me if I missed any.

"Speaking"

'Thinking'

_Notes_

Disclaimer: I don't own Pokemon.

**Chapter 3: Bad Day**

Gary stopped his car, parking it perfectly in the school car park. He unbuckled his seatbelt and exited the car. Leaf, who was sitting in the passengers seat with her doll on her lap also unfastened her seatbelt. They had arrived at school earlier than usual today, although that did not mean that they were early. Leaf sat the doll in the in an upright postion on the vacnt seat and shut the door gently, making sure that the doll was still sitting up when the door was shut and locked.

"I hope the professor gets to the bottom of what happened to my house." Leaf said to Gary for the umpteenth time since Professor Oak promised Leaf to look into this.

Gary's grandpa suspected that the person who robbed his lab was the same culprit who turned the Green household inside-out. However, the professor did not say how he derived his hypothesis; he only claimed it with his signature 'I know I'm right' look.

"I have a feeling he will." Gary said as he opened the front door for him and Leaf to walk through it before following and letting the door thud shut.

They crossed the large and almost completely empty of people atrium to get to the other side, where they entered a set of double doors that lead them to a set of stairs. They walked up and headed into their registration class and took their seats at the back of the classroom.

"Morning Leaf!" Shouted Dawn as she turned round in her seat to talk to her friend. She was all cheery like almost every other day. That was what Leaf loved about her the most.

"Morning!" Leaf shouted back, imitating her friend's upbeat tone of voice.

Just then May walked in. Leaf and Dawn looked at each others when they noticed May walk in with her hair which looked like someone had ruffled it vigorously and her outfit, which consisted of a long red top and a pair of plain black leggins, looked slightly askew.

"What happened to you?" Asked Dawn and Leaf in unison. They found it odd for May to look like such a state.

May yanked her chair away from the table and angrily sat on it. "I hate that Drew Hayden!" May practically yelled across the class. Har two friends gave her a look telling her to elaborate on what she had just said. "I had perfect hair today and my outfit was crease free but when I entered the front door today, a certain grasshead decided that it would be fun to ruffle my hair and use hair spray to make this," May pointed at her messy brown hair, "Stay in place."

Leaf and Dawn could hear Gary snicker at May's day so far and for his sake, they were thankful that May didn't hear him.

"Wait till you hear my day yesterday." Dawn started, reliving the horrible end to her school day yesterday in a bid to cheer May up. "I was leaving school a bit later yesterday because of the caoching course I'm doing and well, when I was getting changed..." Dawn stopped and signalled her friends closer. "When I was in the shower, some of the guys walked in to the girls' changing room!" She loud whispered.

May and Leaf's jaw dropped and their eyes widened in shock. "OMG!" They mouthed.

Gary shook his head. Maybe leaning forward didn't stop him from over hearing. "I'm so sure the showers have doors." He commented casually, earning him a kick in the leg followed by a stern look from Leaf. "But I'm sure Leaf can top that." Gary added, which earned him yet another stern look and a kick that missed this time.

"What happened to you, Leaf?" Dawn asked, leaning forward as if she was conducting an interrogation session with the brunette.

"Nothing much. I think my house was robbed yesterday during school." Leaf replied as she inspected her shoes for any scratches on them caused by kicking the table when her foot missed Gary.

May and Dawn looked wide eyed at her.

"You call that nothing?" May asked as she tried to run her fingers through her usually silky smooth hair only to get it stuck half way.

"I did say I think." Leaf pointed out. "But it is being handled with so it should be safe for me to go home tonight." Leaf said as she rose from her seat when the bell went.

"Wait." May tried to stop Leaf from walking any further as she picked up her pace and tried to flatten her hair. "If you said it 'should be safe for me to go home tonight', where were you last night?" May asked as she headed along to her locker with Leaf while Dawn was trailing behind.

"I stayed at Gary's." Leaf said casually. For anyone that was not Leaf who said that, it would raise suspicion. However, everyone at school knew that Gary and Leaf are childhood friends so it seemed perfectly normal.

"If anyone else said that, it would raise suspicion about Gary being 'off the market.'" May said, quoting many people at the end of the sentence. She opened her locker and dug out her books for her periods one and two classes which were maths and art- her least favourite followed by her favourite subject.

Leaf shrugged and opened her locker. Gary stood there waiting for her to walk to their first period advanced physics class.

"I love how you girls love to talk about me when I'm standing right here." Gary casually said.

Leaf nudged him before opening her locker. She tried to reach out for her first and second period books but she froze when she saw what was in her locker. Gary and May noticed her expression and looked in her locker.

"A doll?" May said as she picked it up and inspected it. "Why do you have a doll in your locker?"

Just then Dawn reappeared. "That's such a pretty doll!" Dawn exclaimed as she grabbed it out of May's hands and started to admire it.

"I thought you left that in my car." Gary stated as he looked at Leaf, who was reaching for her doll. She returned it to her locker.

Leaf shut her locker door and turned to face Gary. "I did." She said seriously.

"Can I borrow that for art sometime?" Dawn asked as she popped up between Gary and Leaf, breaking the slight tension as she did so.

_ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ x

For Leaf and Gary, they felt that first period ended it too quickly. They walked out of their class and headed down the hall to their next class which just so happens to be another science; chemistry. It was both Gary and Leaf's least favourite science, though, that is not to say that they do not like it.

Leaf and Gary were the first ones there and soon after they had settled in, class was starting.

"Okay class." Blaine said, "Today we will learn about super and semiconductors." He told the class to open their text books before he started to go on and on.

Leaf pulled out her notepad and started to write.

_Let's play hang man! I'll go first._

__ _ _ _/ _ _/ _/ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ !_

Gary looked to see what the teacher was doing first before he took Leaf's notepad and started to write a note back.

_I never agreed to play._

He passed the notepad back to Leaf and she read it. She scored out what he had wrote on and shoved him the notepad. Gary took the hint and guessed a letter.

_A._

Leaf read his guess then proceeded to write the letters in and passed it back to Gary.

__ A _ _/ _ _/ A/ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ A _ _ _ !_

Gary guessed yet another letter.

_S._

And Leaf filled in more of the spaces.

__ A _ _/ _ S/ A/ S_ _ _ _ _ _ A S _ _ !_

Gary read the the letters that had been filled in so far and suspected something.

_It's about me, isn't it?_

He looked at Leaf after she had read the message. She shrugged in response which greatly annoyed him.

_G._

Leaf smiled at the letter he was guessing.

_G A _ _ _ S A S _ _ _ _ _ _ A S _ _ !_

Leaf passed the notepad towards him just when the teacher looked over but luckily for them, the phone rang. Leaf and Gary looked at each other as if to say that was close. The teacher hung up almost as soon as he answered the phone.

"Green, you've been ordered down to the reception and you have to bring your bag." Blaine said as he picked up the textbook that he was reading from and continued to do so.

Leaf looked at Gary. "I wonder what's happening." She whispered to him as she paced up her belongings and tucked in her chair.

"Maybe it's something to do with your house." Gary suggested logically. "But I could be wrong. Text me about it."

Leaf nodded and left the class. She shut the door behind her and wandered down the science open area and across the balcony. Leaf eventually made it to the reception and she was not all that surprised to see Professor Oak standing there. But she was not too sure if seeing Officer Jenny standing beside him was a good sign or not.

"Hi, gramps." Leaf greeted. She nodded her head towards Officer Jenny's direction to acknowledge her. "Did something happen?" Leaf asked. She could not help but feel slightly worried about the answer to the question she just asked.

Professor Oak's expression changed to express a lot more concern than before she asked. "Leaf, we've found your parents." He told her monotonously.

"Really!" Leaf said happily, however, she knew that things were about to change rapidly.

"I'm not sure if you should be so excited about it." The professor said in the same way, causing Leaf's happy-go-lucy smile to drop off her face. "Just come with me."

Leaf signed out of the school- without her happy-go-lucky attitude and followed the professor and Officer Jenny into the slick, black car.

_ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ x

Meanwhile...

It was almost the end of the school day. Most of the girls had finished using the showers, however, there was one cubicle that was still occupied. Over the sound of the water splashing against the tiled flooring, a faint humming of some hit song could be heard. Not too long after, the shower was switched off and the humming became more distinct. The click from the unlocking of the cubicle made a loud noise in the empty changing room followed by the sounds of the girls wet foot steps.

The humming never stopped the whole time. The girl opened the changing room locker.

And the humming came to an abrupt end...

_ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ x

Another chapter down. I hope you liked this chapter. And about the ending, it will tie in later. But for now, review! Also feel free to guess the message in the game of hang man. And by the way, / in the hang man bit was because I wasn't allowed to leave spaces to indicate the end of a word.

Hope this chapter was better than the last!


	5. Some Answers

**Where's My Dolly?**

For people who still care, here's an update after god knows how long! Hope you like 3

**Chapter 4: Some answers**

Leaf speed walked through the hospital's automatic doors which were barely opening fast enough for her. The professor followed right behind her, telling her which way to turn in the similar looking halls and corridors of the hospital.

She eventually stopped at a room in the intensive care department. She was a bit hesitant in opening the door. She had directed this way but she was really hoping that she wasn't going to see what she thought she was going to.

And when the professor opened the door and urged her in, she saw what she had dreaded since she had been told that the police had found her parents and they were heading to the hospital. It did not take a genius to piece together what was to come.

On the other side of the window, on a bed and with countless number of tubes attached was Leaf's mother, the women she had not seen in days. She was motionless.

Leaf could feel her eyes water even more than when she was told she was coming here. Everything was now a blur to her. It was weird. Just a few hours ago, she was sitting in chemistry making Gary play hangman with her and before she knew it, her mother was in a life threatening state. The doctor's weren't even sure if she was going to make it.

But what about her dad? She had only been led to see her mother but what about the man that protected her from the monsters in her closet when she was four?

She turned to the professor who was standing by her side the whole time, silent. "Where's my dad?" she somehow managed to say through the lump that was staying in that one spot that prevented her from talking in a normal voice.

The professor took a breath. "He's still in the operating theatre…" the professor said slowly and quietly, afraid that if he had said it any louder it would make Leaf collapse or something.

It was this very moment that Leaf actually felt herself shed her first tear. She couldn't believe what she had just heard. Her dad was probably in a worst state than her mother.

The brunette felt herself sinking to her feet as her back slide against the window that was blocking her from being right next to her mum. Her tears were trickling down her cheeks uncontrollably.

She felt a hand on her shoulder.

"You're welcome to stay with Gary, Daisy and myself for a while."

Xx-x-xX

The door opened with a slight squeak.

Gary entered emptied the books in his bag into his locker and shut the door behind him, allowing his back to rest on it. He pulled his phone out of his pocket again and checked it for any texts or missed calls. Nothing… Again. It had barely been a minute since he last checked it.

"Someone's looking a bit paranoid today." Said a cool voice from beside him.

Gary looked up to see Drew leaning on the locker next to him. He looked at Gary, waiting for him to say something like a comeback to him.

Gary shook his head. "It's Leaf," he started, "She still hasn't text back even though I told her to text me as soon as possible."

Drew could see the concern in Gary's expression. "Maybe she's just busy."

Gary shook his head again, "You don't know Leaf. She'll text me a million times a day even when I specifically tell her not to."

Drew didn't know what to say to that.

It silent for a while, that is until they heard someone cough.

The two boys looked to see who it was.

"Move grasshead," May ordered, "I need to grab my P.E. kit." She finished as she stepped forward and attempted to shove Drew out the way.

"No you don't." Drew replied as he continued to lean on her locker.

May groaned. "No seriously, move. I'm not in the mood to deal with you."

"Well I'm only doing you a favour by telling you P.E. is cancelled."

Both Gary and May looked at Drew with a confused expression.

"A girl died in one the girls' changing rooms last night." Drew explained, not shifting from his position at all. "The police aren't sure if it's murder or suicide so until further notice, all P.E. and sports clubs are cancelled until further notice."

"I heard that too!" Dawn chipped in, appearing out of nowhere and giving the guys and May a fright. She walked over to her locker which was slightly further along from where everyone else was standing. She entered her combination into her locker and with a click, it opened. Dawn was about to just empty everything messily into her locker like usual when she noticed something that didn't belong.

A doll.

Not just any doll; it was Leaf's doll. The same doll that she had in her locker yesterday. The same one that Dawn wanted to borrow for her art project.

"What are you doing in my locker?" Dawn asked.

The others weren't sure who Dawn was talking to or rather if she was talking to a person at all. She did have a tendency to talk to herself and inanimate objects a lot.

Dawn picked up the doll and showed it to the others. "When did Leaf put this in my locker?" she asked, as she inspected the doll and her locker for a note that Leaf may had left behind. She did not find anything.

Xx-x-xX

The front door to the Oak household opened. Gary stepped into the remarkably cooler house and shut the door behind him, keeping the uncomfortable heat out. In the background of the usually quiet house, Gary could hear his grandpa talking to someone- probably not Daisy though. His speech was a bit more polite than when he spoke to either Daisy or Gary.

But Gary concluded that hearing his grandpa's voice was a good thing. It meant he could finally get some answers about what is happening with Leaf.

He entered the living room where the professor sat in his usual armchair with a mug of coffee in his hand. Across from him on the larger couch was Daisy and Leaf, who looked notably sad; depressed almost.

Gary looked confused. "What's going on?" He let his bag drop to the carpeted floor.

"Leaf is going to be staying with us for a while." His grandpa replied, holding his mug up near his lips. "She'll be staying in the room across from yours."

Gary walked over to Leaf and sat beside her. He put an arm round her shoulder while Daisy retreated hers, and got up.

"I'll go clean up the guest room for Leaf." Daisy said, and then left the room.

"I'm going to call Officer Jenny and see if she has any updates." The professor stated as he picked up the phone and left the room from the door closest to him.

Gary watched as the two of them left the room. He did not say anything until he heard their footsteps fade into the background. "Do you want to tell me what happened?" he asked as he started to stroke Leaf's arm comfortingly.

Leaf kept her head down. "Mum and dad are in hospital…" she started, not really knowing where to start from, but never-the-less she continued on.

Xx-x-xX

"Yes, yes…Really? The neck?" The professor said, surprised by what he's been told. "I think I know exactly who's doing this. But I need to time to tr-"

Knock knock.

The professor hung up as soon as he heard the knock on the door, not even bothering to finish what he was saying, let alone saying goodbye to the person on the other end.

"Gramps?" Gary called out as he pushed the door to the laboratory slightly, just enough for him to slip in.

"Gary!" The professor said as he spun round. "Where's Leaf?"

"She's asleep in the guest room." He answered as he approached the older man. "Is everything okay with you? Who was that on the phone?" He questioned.

"Yes, yes, everything's just fine. And no one in particular. Just a colleague. " He said as he sat down on his chair. "What brings you here?"

"Just checking if you're okay." Gary started cautiously, "You looked lost in thought during dinner. You know something…"

The professor sighed. "Maybe."

Xx-x-xX

Okay, that's this chapter done! It's shorter than the norm but it'll do for now! Happy Halloween everyone!

Also, like usual, R and R! Ta :D


	6. Let's Fortget This Ever Happened

**Where's My Dolly?**

Hi readers I'd like to start by saying that I replied to some reviewers but not all cause I'm not sure if the messages sent or not… So just to clarify, I really appreciate the support! Keep it coming and in case you haven't noticed, here's the reward for reviewing!

Chapter 5: Let's Forget This Ever Happened

Her eyes fluttered. They opened eventually, allowing her brown eyes to take in her surroundings. She gently sat up, making as little noise as possible, almost as if the slightly bit of noise hurt her.

She looked around her. It was an environment that she was all too familiar with which made her feel safe, but after remember why she was here, she felt her heart shatter.

Using the little bit of light that seeped through the gap between the heavy curtains, Leaf managed to rummage around for her clothes: a pair of jeans and an oversized t-shirt. She drew back the curtains after getting dressed and found her slippers before opening the door quietly and tip-toeing across the hall.

She wasn't sure if she should knock or not. Actually, when she thought about it, she didn't even know the time! All she knew was that there was light outside so it couldn't have been that early. Deciding against knocking, she popped her head into a small gap and peeped into Gary's room.

The bed in the room was empty and neatly made up. But Gary wasn't up yet. He had fallen asleep at his desk, his head resting in the cavity formed by his arms.

Leaf watched him sleep for a while. On any other day, the said brunette would have surprise slapped his back. But he had been so nice to her; it was because of her that he was sleeping on his desk, probably because he had sat by her bedside for a couple of hours last night, telling her a story until she fell asleep again.

*FLASHBACK*

The duvet was only half on the bed. The other half was covering the floor beside the bed, keeping the floor cosy. Leaf had been tossing and turning so much that the noise from the crumpling of the bed and everything on it could be heard from outside the room, with the door shut tight.

Gary had just finished talking to his grandpa. His head was filled with so much, it was hard for him to think straight. He wanted to head back into his room and write down everything he had just learnt but the noise stopped him.

He can hear movement emanating from the guest room, where Leaf was staying. He cracked open the door slightly and went in. He went up to the bedside and sat down, waking Leaf, who looked as if she was having a nightmare- which she was.

She gasped, loudly when she was shaken, sitting up quickly in the process.

"It's just me." Gary whispered, trying to keep her calm.

He could tell that Leaf was scared. Her heart was pounding so quickly that it hurt her; her hands were sweating; her skin was red and hot and her pupils were dilated.

Gary wrapped an arm around her shoulders while whispering comforting words in her ear. He shuffled closer, pulling her into his chest.

He knew Leaf well enough to know what would work, what would calm her down. A distraction.

"Let's forget everything that's happened lately… Let me tell you a story." He said. He didn't proceed with starting the story until he felt Leaf's nod of approval. "There was a little girl." He started, "she was smart and she could do anything but one day…"

*END FLASHBACK*

Leaf turned and proceeded to step away from the room when she felt herself walk into someone.

Xx-x-xX

Leaf entered the kitchen and looked in the fridge. Eggs and milk. Check. She then opened the cabinet along from the sink. Flour and sugar. Check.

Leaf found the scales and measured out all the ingredients and put them all in a bowl and whisked them together. Pancakes. That's what Leaf was making as a breakfast thank you to the Oaks for helping her.

She heater a pan and started to make her first batch of pancakes. While she waited for them to cook, she thought about what Gary had said to her last night, the story he told her.

"_There was a little girl. She was smart and could anything but one day…_

…_One day…"_

She tried hard to remember what came next. But nothing came to her head. She remembered hearing the story; she just didn't retain anything.

"Careful!"

Leaf snapped out of her thoughts. All she saw was Gary hurry to where she was standing and moved the pan from the ring.

"Careful or you'll burn the place down!" Gary said.

Leaf looked at her blackened pancakes in the pan. "Luckily that was only the first batch…" Leaf said to herself as picked up the bowl of pancake mix and gave it another stir.

Gary noticed how Leaf acted so differently from yesterday. She longer seemed to be in that mood that made his heart ache when he saw her but she wasn't her completely like her usual upbeat self. But he did consider this to be a huge improvement from yesterday. Was this because of the story he told her?

"Maybe I should empty that pan and try this again now the pan is at the right temperature." Leaf continued to speak to herself as she manoeuvred round the kitchen to do what she needed to do before she could start again.

"You okay Leaf?" Gary asked as he stood in the same spot, not moving but keeping his eyes on Leaf.

"Yeah…" Leaf said as she tried to concentrate on the cooking. "I just want to do what you said."

"What part of what I said?" Gary asked, slightly intrigued as to where this was heading.

"The part you started with, 'Let's forget all this ever happened'." Leaf quoted as she watched her pancakes, taking extra care not to burn them this time.

"I'm glad you will." Gary said as he watched Leaf's intense stare towards the pan.

"Me too…" Leaf turned to Gary and ushered him out of the kitchen and into to the dining room. "Breakfast will be ready soon!" She announced as she headed back into the kitchen to continue her pancake watch.

Gary did as he was told and took his usual seat at the dinner table. "Let's not go to school today. I want to take you somewhere."

Xx-x-xX

Leaf didn't exactly feel safe walking with a blind fold on. She never did, even when she was little, or rather because of when she was little but Gary insisted she wore one.

The brunet himself was walking behind. He had his hand on Leaf's shoulder and was steering her, making sure she didn't walk into anything or trip over anything. Of course, it was a lot easier now since he could easily see over her.

"Where are we going?" Leaf whined again, "Are we there yet?" She had repeated the two question several times since they left the house and not once did Gary give her the answer she desired.

"Almost."

"You've been saying that for the past half hour now!" Leaf whined.

"Well we are almost there. It's just up ahead but it's a pretty bumpy path." Gary warned as he tightened his grip round her shoulders slightly.

They walked for a few more minutes with Leaf's whines and Gary's replies.

"Okay, you can take off your blindfold now." He announced as he let go of Leaf's shoulders and stepped in front of her.

Leaf did as she was told and untied the back of her blindfold which was really just a handkerchief (or something like that) and looked at her environment. It was all so familiar to her.

In front of her was a lake, huge shimmering blue lake that was across from the hikers' path, which meant that this side was usually very quiet and secluded. Floods of memories just came Leaf's mind about this place that she once knew like the back of her hand; in fact, she probably still did know this place that well!

"It's been a long time since we've came here!" Leaf exclaimed as she stepped forward towards the lake, stopping just before it and making herself comfortable on the sandy ground. For the first time today, she felt herself smile like her how usually would.

"I know, I thought it'd be a nice way to just relax and forget about everything like we did whenever we were kids." Gary said as he made himself comfortable beside Leaf on the ground.

"Thanks for being there last night." Leaf said shyly for a change, "I really needed that." She finished. Her eyes never looking away from the clear water in front of them.

Gary smiled. "It was nothing."

Leaf sighed and smiled. "Your gramps spoke to me this morning." Leaf started, "Apparently mum's in a stable condition now and is likely to survive."

Gary noticed Leaf's smile and smiled too. "I'm glad." He said, leaning back slightly. "I spoke to the professor last night while you were sleeping." He paused for a moment. "He told me some interesting things."

"Like?" Leaf prompted, looking at Gary, fascinated as to where this conversation was headed.

He thought for a moment. "We're meant to be relaxing out here." He reminded the brunette. "I'll tell you later."

This got Leaf curious. She knew perfectly well that it was related to her parents but she left it for now. It was at times like these that she had to agree that Gary knew best. Maybe she needed this break.

"Is it bad news?" Leaf asked after a moment of listening to the trees rustle and the birds chirp.

Gary had laid back by this point. His eyes were shut but he wasn't asleep- yet anyway. He shook his head. "I'm not answering anything until our time here is over."

Leaf pouted. She got up and headed towards the water and put her hand in it, she did an ushering motion to the water and stopped when an idea hit her. She made a cup with both her hands and submerged it in the water.

Gary had pretty much fallen asleep by this point. He was up late last night and the only reason he woke up so early today was because of the burning smell from the "trial pancakes" as Leaf called.

"Gary?" Leaf called out. She stood above him and when she got a reply no more than a grunt, she parted her hands, allowing the remainder of the water that didn't leak out from the lake to where she stood now to drop on her friend.

Gary gasped as he felt the cool water soak through his shirt and have contact with his chest. He shot up from his relaxed position and looked for the brunette responsible for his discomfort. "Leaf!"

The said girl had already ran aside, behind her favourite tree which was just to the side of where they were sitting earlier. Though, she gave away where she was from her constant giggling.

Xx-x-xX

After spending the majority of the day by the lake like when they were younger, the two teenagers decided to go back to the house. It was starting to get chilly and it didn't help that they were wet from frolicking about in the water.

"Gary," Leaf started. The mentioned boy looked at her, "thanks for today. I really needed it."

"I know you did. I'm always right." Gary replied in his usual cocky way, earning him a shove.

They both laughed and looked at each other. They were sitting back on the same spot as when they first arrived, only closer to each other.

Leaf wasn't sure if it was only her seemed to notice but she felt the gap between Gary's face and her own face decrease, like he was going to try to-

Suddenly a shriek sounded, ripping through the forest's natural tranquillity.

They both snapped out of their… State and ran towards the scream.

At the source was a woman, a hiker possibly, Leaf noted and in front of her was a body.

A still and lifeless one.

Xx-x-xX

Well that's another chappie down! Quick right? Well just so you know it's thanks to my inspiration now! And the reviews of course! Can't forget those! Once again thanks to those who reviewed the last chapter. Please review this one too, even if it's only with one word! Oh, and don't expect me to update so quickly again!

Ta :)


	7. Gary?

**Where's My Dolly?**

So, I'm back with another chappie :D maybe I can get one more up before the year is over! Emmm… Oh, I trued to reply to reviewers but the link they send to me via email is apparently broken so if anyone was wodering (or cares) that's why I've not replied.

But anyway woo! Here we go! Another chapter!

Chapter 6: Gary?

"And that's all I know." Leaf finished. She had been escorted away from the forest and was at the police station giving a statement about what they knew about the person that was found lying on the muddy forest floor in a puddle of blood.

Leaf watched as the officer finished writing some things down onto the document and passed it to her, telling her to read over it and sign it if it's okay. She skimmed through the text, signed and dated the document before being led back into the waiting area where she sat down on one of the plain, blue chairs, waiting for Gary who was nowhere in sight.

She concluded that he was probably still being interrogated by the police. She sat and observed the people in the surrounding.

To her left were two police officers. They were using the vending machine. She couldn't help but eavesdrop into their conversation, which somewhat interested her.

"I'd imagine she must've been dead for a while." Said the officer with a coffee in his hands.

"Why do you say that?" Asked the other officer, who asked exactly what Leaf was thinking. He had a cap on.

"You weren't at the scene." The first officer said, "That body reeked so badly, the newbie threw up! Even that woman who spotted the body said she smelt it before she saw it!"

'Interesting.' Leaf thought as she continued to listen in, unaware that she was slowly shuffling along the row of seats, getting closer to the two by the vending machine. She wanted to keep on listening but the sound of footsteps and a familiar voice diverted her attention.

It was Gary, walking alongside a colleague of the two people that Leaf was listening to. He approached Leaf who had stood up and was ready to leave.

Xx-x-xX

The water sprayed out of the shower head, landing on the soft, white skin of Leaf. After today's ups and downs, she really felt like she needed to feel the refreshing water on her to help her think straight. It had been a few days since the strange things that have been happening to her started.

After cleaning herself under the water, she stepped out from under the shower and wrapped the towel round herself and went into her temporary room. She slumped onto the bed, spreading her arms out.

She thought back to what had happened today: she woke up depressed; was told the good news that her mum was going to be okay; was taken to the forest where the bulk of her childhood memories where; found the dead body and somewhere along the way, was told by Gary that he knew something that she didn't. Something about the mystery behind what happened to her parents. Leaf couldn't help but wonder what he knew that she didn't. She thought that the professor had told her all he knew, all of what the police knew.

Whatever Gary knew, Leaf was adamant that she was going to find out as soon as she put some clothes on.

After changing into a fresh pair of pyjamas, Leaf headed to the room directly across from her s and walked in, not even bothering to knock first.

The sound of the door swinging open startled Gary, who immediately dropped what he was doing, literally, and shot up from his seat. "Leaf." He said as used his foot to shove what he dropped under his desk before proceeding to walk towards her. His shirt was undone completely and his hair was askew. "You need something?"

"Actually I was wondering about what you. You seemed really quiet on the way back from the police station."

Gary shook his head. "I was just thinking about something. But it's nothing important."

"If you say so," Leaf said before she moved onto what she really wanted to find out. "I was wonder about something… Something that you said to me today, you know, back in the woods."

"What did I say?" Gary asked though he knew very well what Leaf was referring to.

"You know," Leaf started, "the things that the professor told you. You said you'd tell me."

Gary nodded. "But maybe after a shower." He stretched his body, "I'm so tired! I'll tell you if you're still up." He ruffled her wet hair as he turned and headed to his bathroom.

Leaf plopped herself on the edge of his bed. "I will be." She said firmly.

Xx-x-xX

After his shower, Gary came into his room, his hair damp and his body naked, except for his boxers. He was planning to go to bed; after all, he did take his time knowing that Leaf was probably on the verge of dozing off.

In his room, Leaf was still there but awake she was not.

"So much for being awake." Gary mocked as he moved her so that she was lying on the bed properly with her head elevated by his pillow. He tucked her in and kissed her forehead. "I'll be back." He whispered to her.

Xx-x-xX

Beep beep. Beep beep. Beep beep.

Leaf cracked an eye opened and looked at the alarm clock. Slamming her hand on it- hard, with more force than necessary- she opened her other eye and analysed the surrounding. Gary's room.

Wait. Gary's room?

She suddenly remembered what she was doing in Gary's room. She was waiting for him to tell her things, things she needed to know more than anything else. But where was Gary? She looked around the room. He was nowhere to be seen.

Maybe he was up already, she thought to herself. With that thought in mind, she got out of bed and went across the hall back to her own room.

As soon as she stepped out of that room, Daisy appeared seemingly out of nowhere and surprised her.

"What's been going on in there?" she said with an accusing look on her face. "Did you and Gary-" Daisy rushed into the room but she stopped herself from finishing what she was going to say when she noticed that her brother wasn't in there. "Where's my lil' bro'?" She asked as she came back out of the room.

"I thought he was up already…" Leaf said, now feeling uncertain about the conclusion she came to just minutes ago.

Daisy shook her head. "I just came up from downstairs and he wasn't there. I thought he was still asleep! He does like to have a lie in on Saturday's when he's not going somewhere during the day."

Leaf suddenly felt very panicky. "Is his car outside?" she asked as she hurried over to Gary's room window which overlooked the driveway to their house.

Daisy followed her. "It's still there." She stated once she had a look out of the window. "He probably went out for a jog then." Daisy concluded.

And Leaf believed her…

Xx-x-xX

Leaf had not left the house at all. In fact, she spent most of her day sitting in Gary's room; waiting for him to return so that she could get some answers. She stood by his window waiting but nothing.

She had been waiting for over five hours, leaving the room for the quickest toilet breaks before she was back at the window. She declined Daisy's offer of lunch at the Beau café in town, which in hinds sight was a bad idea because it's very expensive and Gary didn't come back to the house anyway.

Leaf's eyes were feeling heavy as she stood in the same position as she had been standing in all day: elbows leaning on the window sill, all her weight on the joints. Her hand held her head up but after the first few hours, her head started to touch the window.

"Leafy?" Daisy called out, "are you still waiting? Why don't you come to the living room for some tea?"

Leaf's feet ached from standing. Tea was a tempting offer…

Xx-x-xX

The small tea break that Leaf allowed herself to was quiet and brief. She sat in the living room with Daisy and a cup of tea.

The only thought that was running through Leaf's thought was of Gary and his random disappearance today. She was curious about what Gary had to say to her. If only she knew that he was going to disappear like that. She would have did all she could to make herself stay awake last night.

"Maybe something came up. You know what he's like at times." Daisy said, interrupting Leaf's thoughts. "Perhaps we should call the waiting a night and try again tomorrow?"

Leaf sighed. "Maybe…" Her voice was no more than a whisper but Daisy heard it loud and clear in the pin drop silence of the house.

"Good. Let's go make dinner together now." Daisy said as she stood up, dragging Leaf up with her before proceeding to take her to the kitchen.

In the kitchen, Daisy took out a chopping board from the cabinet and a big knife for Leaf to work with. Leaf picked up the nearby vegetables and started to chop them up into however Daisy requested them to be done. Daisy stood next to the pot on the stove. Whatever was inside it was bubbling a lot.

"All the veggies are chopped up." Leaf said as she passes the board over to Daisy who shoves everything on it into the pot.

"Dinner will be ready in an hour or so." Daisy said as she turned the stove's heat down and placed the lid on the pot. "So don't eat anything before then."

"I won't." Leaf said. "But I fancy some more tea."

"Then make some." Daisy smiled as she reached into her pocket and pulled out her phone which was flashing and vibrating in her hand. She excused herself and left the kitchen to somewhere private to engage in a deep conversation with one of her friends about new shoes."

Leaf does as Daisy suggests when she leaves the room. She reaches to one of the overhead cabinets and takes out her favourite mug and teabag from the box. She dropped her teabag in and picked up the kettle. She stopped herself from pouring the hot water in when she realised that there was something in it. A piece of paper.

Being curious, Leaf took the bit of paper out ( and judging by the look of it, it was one of the several pieces that she spares Gary from her note pads in chemistry). She unfolded it and read what was on it.

She felt a smile spread across her face when she saw a specific part of it.

_G A _ _ _ S A S _ _ _ _ _ _ A S _ _ !_

It was the game of hangman from a few days ago before all the things that have happened to her lately- except for the house being broken into.

"If only things could still be like that now…" Leaf said to herself as she folded the bit of paper back up and tucked it into her pocket.

She checked her phone once more.

Nothing.

Xx-x-xX

Teehee. A chappie :D Hope you liked it!


	8. He's Gonna Come Back

Where's My Dolly?

New chappie here and it contains a wee bit of contestshipping in it. Hope you like it!

Chapter 7: He's Gonna Come Back

Leaf sat on at the desk in her room at the Oak household. She had her chemistry books open in front of her though; she paid little attention to them. The sheet of paper that she retrieved from the cup was what really captivated her attention. She looked at it, barely capable of remembering what the message on the sheet was but if she had to take a guess, it was probably an insult to Gary, but a fact to her.

Why was the sheet in her favourite cup anyway?

That's what really puzzled her. If Gary had the sheet of paper, should it not be in with his chemistry stuff? And even if it had fallen out, what person in the right mind would put the paper in a cup?

Leaf pondered over it. She held the sheet in her hands and read it over and over again.

"Maybe he was trying to tell me something…" Leaf said, uncertain as to whether her thought is right or not.

She continued to stare at the note as if it was talking to her.

"What'cha looking at there?" Daisy asked, leaning against the doorframe.

"Nothing." Leaf replied as she tried to subtly slide the sheet under her textbook.

However smoothly the note was hidden away, it still did not manage to evade Daisy's attention. The older girl lifted the textbook up slightly and glanced at the note. She laughed when she saw it.

"This note," Daisy started, "I remember seeing Gary with that last night." She said which caught Leaf's attention in no time. Daisy noticed Leaf's interest in the topic and continued. "When he finally realised that I was standing behind him he shoved the note somewhere. Where did you find that?"

"In my favourite cup." Leaf answered. So maybe her thought was wrong and he Gary did not have anything to say but it did make her night knowing that Gary was still puzzling over their game from a few days ago.

Xx-x-xX

It was Monday. Leaf hated Mondays. She was up and sitting round the breakfast at eight, maybe a couple of minutes past eight. The professor sat down for a while before quickly excusing himself from the table and disappearing off to his lab again. Daisy noticed that her gramps had been spending a great deal more time than usual in the lab. She announced it before she left for Cerulean city to see Bill, leaving Leaf at the table.

Leaf picked up the morning papers and read the headlines.

_Identity of the dead hiker solved_

The heading intrigued Leaf and she was flicking to the page with the full story before she knew it. She skimmed the text quickly. She gathered that the hiker was a professor who carried out research under Professor Oak and was killed with a deep incision across the neck which caused excessive bleeding. But it was the person who apparently supplied the police with the information was what sparked her interest. Gary Oak.

Well, the papers did not exactly say Gary Oak but it did say G. Oak said it and Leaf was positive that it was him.

Maybe Gary did know more than she thought…

Xx-x-xX

Leaf stood by her locker for a long time. She thought Gary might turn up to school but so far, it did not look like he was going to. She stood by her locker which was near Gary's right up until she was ushered off to class.

She went into homeroom and sat in the empty seat behind May and Dawn. They were shocked to see Leaf in school. They had heard about what happened over the past few days.

"Leaf!" They both greeted in unison when the brunette approached them.

"Hi." She greeted with a smile. "I don't suppose either of you guys have seen Gary?"

May and Dawn looked at each other. They both shook their heads and wondered if something had happened but neither of them asked about it, just in case it was something that causes Leaf's waterworks to spring a leak, though, they both thought that seems somewhat unlikely.

Instead, the girls sit in homeroom, discussing some gossip about different celebrities, trying to take Leaf's mind off anything that was concerning her and deep down, the girls knew there was.

They talked all the way through homeroom and out of it too when the bell went. They travelled off to their first period history class together.

Leaf sat in her seat that she always occupied thought the space next to her was empty today. Usually, it would be occupied by Gary but it was clear to her that something had happened. Even though he did not have the best behaviour and attitude in class and school in general, he never skipped school without a valid reason.

May took the seat in front of her. She turned round to continue their intriguing discussion on fashion faux pars while the teacher waited for more students to show up. Dawn on the other hand went to set up her things for her art project.

Drew strolled in a few minutes after them, flipping May's hair as he walked past to take his seat behind Leaf.

"How many times do I need to tell you to stop doing that!" May yelled as he continued to his seat.

"Shave it all off and you won't have that tic problem. Just be thankful that I'm helping you get rid of them." Drew said just before he sat in his seat with one arm hanging off the back of the chair.

May glared at him. "I don't have tics!"

Drew ignored her and looked at the empty seat in front of him. "Where's Oak?"

"No clue. I thought you might know." Leaf replied. "I haven't seen him since Saturday."

"I thought you live with him now?" May queried as she tried to mentally remember all of the conversation that was to come. Just so that she could regurgitate it all to Dawn.

"I am for now but he's not been at his house."

"I spoke to him yesterday morning." Drew said, "He didn't say much. Only something about someone called Ivy on the Sunday and come back by Monday afternoon or something like that. The phone connection wasn't too good."

"His auntie Ivy?" Leaf said, confused about where this was heading. "Why would he go see her. Gary's never like that woman."

Drew shrugged. "Why are all the people who have names that only contain three letters hated?"

"What's that supposed to mean?" May fumed.

Xx-x-xX

"Hmm… Maybe this should go here instead and… Hmmm… Yeah, I think this looks good!" Dawn beamed as she rearranged the dolls and the china around so that the doll picnic display was perfect. There was only a matter of weeks left before she had to finish her portfolio and submit it to Celadon school of art.

She turned round and pulled out her camera. Making sure that the lense was dust free and fitted properly before she removed the lense can and switched it on. She held the camera up and was about to snap when she swore she saw some part of her display move. She thought it may have been a spider or something crawling so dismissed it as nothing important. She readjusted the doll's position and held her camera back up.

"Hmm. Lighting here is not perfect." Dawn said to herself. She went into the teacher's cupboard and looked rummaged about for something that would help her.

After lots of rummaging, she managed to find a light. "I hope you work." She said to the lamp. "If not my job is going to be so-" Dawn gasped at what she saw.

Then everything went black.

Xx-x-xX

The teacher handed out the peer review sheets for the students. After concluding that Gary was not going to show up to history class Mat had shuffled to the set behind where she usually sat. Though she wished she hadn't. She sat through the bulk of the lesson so far with Drew's annoying chair kicking. She turned round several times, telling him to stop.

Leaf sat and did her work. Her mind was at ease now, knowing that Gary was okay and that he would be back, probably with some story. But in the meantime, she focused on the task at hand: marking May's work which was covered in farrago of colours caused by food and her scribbly writing, probably because she worked at it during dinner to "save time".

Leaf marked May's work and wrote some feedback on the bottom before handing it back to May.

May read it aloud. "Well-structured arguments but please avoiding doing your homework at the dinner table. During dinnertime."

"Typical of someone like you to do something so unlady like." Drew commented as he flicked his hair.

"Well that was only because I had a busy schedule!" May retaliated, she banged her fist off of Drew's desk before his paper caught her attention. She grabbed it and read his feedback. "Let's see what's been said about Drew now." May announced to Leaf before she started to read. "Shows good understanding, I think but there's too many big words so I don't really know if they're all right or not."

May, Drew and Leaf all looked at Ash, who sat next to Drew and was the one who marked it. "What?" he asked, oblivious to everything around him.

Xx-x-xX

May slammed her tray on the lunch table. She was obviously annoyed at something else. Misty was sitting down with a cheese sandwich. Leaf on the other hand had nothing in front of her. She had her eyes on the door, hoping that Gary was going to walk through them at any moment. So far, that moment had not passed.

"What's wrong with you now." Misty asked May.

May sat down, still fuming. "That Drew Hayden again!"

Misty looked at May's tray and noticed nothing but salad. "I thought you said you hate salad. Why are you eating that."

"Drew Hayden."

" And the food on your shirt?"

"Drew Hayden." May replied again. "I hate that guy so much. He skipped me in the lunch line then bought the second last portion of pasta!"

"If he was in front of you then how does that affect you?" Leaf asked, taking her gaze off the door. She was starting to get bored of waiting.

"I did. But then he made me spill it." May finished, pointing to her shirt which was covered in a Bolognese sauce. "The lunch lady gave me salad to compensate."

"Don't blame your clumsiness on other people," Drew said, appearing behind May with his pasta. "That's also very unlady-like."

"It was very ungentlemanly of you to just cut in line like that." May retorted. She picked up a fork and stabbed the lettuce aggressively.

"I'm hurt that you'd say that about me." Drew said putting on a fake hurt voice.

Misty looked at them and decided to divert their attention before May loses her temper and starts a fight or, in Misty's opinion, worse, a food fight. "Where's Dawn?"

"She's spending the day in art to trying to finish her art portfolio." May replied before standing up with her tray in hand. "Now if you will excuse me, Mr Hayden, I'm going to empty out my tray instead of DUMPING IT ON OTHER PEOPLE." And with that, May left the people at the table behind.

Xx-x-xX

The walk home was lonely and quiet. The way to her house and Gary's house is in the opposite direction of all her friends (The Green and Oak households, along with a few others are in a more secluded area of the town). Usually, she would have Gary to walk home with or, as of recently, Gary could drive her home.

When she made it her temporary home, she realised quite quickly that no one was in. She was alone. The professor and Daisy had left notes on the board.

Daisy's note said she was going to stay in Cerulean City with Bill for a few more days before she comes back.

The Professor's note states that he is going to be away for the night to visit Professor Ivy.

The professor's note reminded her of what Drew had said today. Gary should have been back by now but judging by the looks of his room, he had not. Or maybe he had.

Leaf noticed a few subtle changes to the room. The textbook that has been opened for the past few days was not sitting on the same page. The page had shifted from being about chiral carbons to spectroscopy, a section that they had not covered in class yet, which confused Leaf.

She lifted the textbook up and beneath it was another textbook. A biology textbook. It was weird. Why was the biology textbook in amongst his chemistry books and notes? Leaf looked at the page it was open at. _Physiology of the Brain._ Yet another section that they had not covered.

Leaf looked at the chemistry book she was holding. Resting on the pages it was open at was a piece of paper with the title of another book.

Leaf took the sheet of paper and pocketed it before she left the room and retreated to her own.

Xx-x-xX

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	9. Revelations

Where's My Dolly?

Emm so here's a new chapter, so, read on!

Chapter 8: Revelations

"Morning Leaf." May greeted as she entered homeroom by herself this morning.

Leaf was already there with her chemistry textbook out and opened in front of her. She looked awfully studious for a change, a look that surprised everyone. "Morning May." Leaf smiled but her smile did not last long. Not seeing Dawn with her made things look even more out of place than usual. "Where's Dawn?"

"I don't know. Her mum phoned my mum last night asking if I know where she is." May replied.

Leaf diverted her attention fully from her book to May, not that it captivated her that much to begin with. "Maybe she did an all-nighter at school?" Leaf tried to cheer May up. May and Dawn had been best friends since they were born.

May forced a smile. "Maybe," May said, "I feel like checking the art department to see if she's there."

Leaf agreed. "But not during first period though." she said, "Mr Blaine will give as all the homework in the world if we're late for that maths test." May nodded in agreement.

When the girls got to the math department, a weird stench flooded Leaf's nose. The smell was familiar to her. She was not sure if it was her who smelt it but if it was not, everyone else must have a pretty pathetic sense of smell.

"Good luck, Leaf." May said as she went into the classroom, Leaf followed her in and sat down before wishing May luck too.

Xx-x-xX

Leaf sat in class, bored. She finished her test quicker than everyone else like usual but still, the pace was slow for her. Even though the room door was shut, Leaf could swear she could still smell whatever it was she smelt.

When everyone had finally finished the test and the papers were taken in, she turned round to look at May. "Do you smell that?" she asked her.

May sniffed the air. "Yeah, a bit." She pulled a disgusted face as she spoke. "How hard was that test!" May asked.

"It was slightly harder than the usual maths tests but it was still quite easy." Leaf replied. Maths was one of Leaf's forte.

"I hate talking to you after a test." May said and then changing the subject. "Shall we go to along to the art department to see if Dawn's there?" Leaf nodded.

They left the class room as soon as the doors opened to avoid being stopped by their fellow classmates for some idle chit chat. The art department was just up from the maths department so it took them only seconds to get there.

The closer they got to the art department, the stronger the smell became, Leaf noted as she speed walked with May. The department was pretty quiet. Only a few students lingered about at the cluttered desks in the classrooms. They peered inside the room with Dawn's display. Leaf pointed at Dawn's bag on the floor, making May feel more at ease knowing that Dawn was indeed at school. Satisfied by what she saw, May left to go to her graphics communication class while Leaf took the back stairs in the art department up to science, where she was going to have to sit alone, again.

Xx-x-xX

Leaf wondered through the school's library with a small slip of paper in her hand. It lunch time and she was spending it in the library, trying to find the book that was on the bit of crumpled paper that she had found in Gary's room the night before. Leaf had spent a good twenty minutes looking for all the books about spectroscopy in the library. She sat down by one of the tables and skimmed through it.

Just when Leaf was starting to get into her reading, a bottle was placed in front of her. She looked at it then up to the person who placed it in front of her. It was Drew. Not what she was hoping to see and not who she was expecting to see either. He sat down at the seat across from Leaf and took the next book from the stack she had to her left. He looked at the title of the book and set it down in front of him.

"It's lunchtime and you're in the library reading about chemistry." Drew stated which surprised Leaf. He usually only ever spoke to her when Gary or May were around. "Only Conway does that." What he said was true and everyone knows that.

"Sure," Leaf said. "For my chemistry project." She lied flawlessly. "And you're here because…" Leaf railed off.

Drew nodded, "I think you're going about things at the wrong place."

"What do you mean?" Leaf inquired, curious as to what made him say that.

"I'm sure you're even more aware about the Oak's library than I am." Drew simply stated as he flicked his hair. Leaf hated how cryptic he was being. It reminded her of Gary too much.

Leaf was about to speak when the library door swung open, revealing May. When she approached the table, she ignored Drew's presence and spoke only to Leaf. "I was going to go to art to see Leaf. Want to come with?" She asked.

Leaf looked over at Drew who was looking away from May. "Sure. Fancy joining Drew?"

Xx-x-xX

The art department was not like usual. Instead being hectic and crowded with several art students, it was silent and deserted, not even a teacher was insight. The stench had gotten worse since the morning. May Leaf and Drew went into the class where Dawn's stuff was but the whereabouts of the girl herself was unknown. Her bag looked like it had been untouched since they last saw it.

"What is that horrible odour?" Drew complained. The smell made him feel slightly nauseous. He went to the back of the classroom and cracked open a window, though that made little difference.

"Not sure." May replied as she pulled out a seat and sat on it. "I wonder where Dawn went." She pondered as she looked at the semi-dried painting on the desk.

Leaf inspected Dawn's doll display. Three of the dolls were sitting in an upright position with perfectly polished china. The teacups were sitting slightly to the right of each doll's plate. The fourth doll- Leaf's doll- was clearly sitting out of place. Well, if the way it was resting counted as sitting. The doll was lying alongside one of the dolls and its teacup was upside down. The plate was however, nowhere to be seen.

When Leaf snapped out of her thoughts, her ears were met with May and Drew's insults which were flying out of their mouths and at each other like usual. But all insults came to an abrupt end when the teacher came into the class.

"Can help you three?" She asked, she did not look like she enjoyed being here. A change from the look that the art teachers always wore, probably because of the smell.

"Actually miss, we were wondering where Dawn is." May admitted. Her tone changed from aggressive to pleasant in a split second.

The teacher looked at May strangely. And what she said next made May's face drop. "Dawn hasn't shown up to school all day."

May looked at Leaf and at Drew and then back to the teacher. "But her bag." May pointed at Dawn's belongings.

"She never took them with her yesterday."

Leaf thought about the new revelation. Dawn was gone, her stuff was still here and there was an awful stench around the place. It reminded Leaf about what happened about a week ago with her parents. She tried to remember what Professor Oak said to her that day at the hospital when he found her parents. And that's when it dawned on her.

Leaf walked briskly past the teacher, with a look of uncertainty. She followed her instinct towards the supply closet and put her hand on the handle. She took a deep breath before she opened the door. Behind it was exactly what she thought; what she did not want to see.

Xx-x-xX

Leaf sat at a little room in the police station again, for the second time within a week. The police take yet another statement from Leaf. But were the police suspicious about her links to the recent murders? Maybe but Leaf did not care. One of her closest friends had just been found dead. All she did care about was May at this moment in time.

When Leaf was discharged from the room, she was escorted out and to the main waiting area where she saw something she did not see coming: Drew with an arm round May, who was upset. He was comforting May, who was trying desperately not to look like an absolute train wreck, in front of Drew of all people.

Leaf quickly made the decision to leave them be and turned to the vending machine which was in the middle of making the day of two busy policemen; the two she listened in on last time she was here.

"The brown haired kid is good." Said the guy who held a cup of plastic coffee in his hands. All Leaf could think was what brown haired kid? Herself? She did not recall supplying the police with any information that could be proved or disproved. She continued to listen in.

"You don't suppose that boy has something to do with it do you?" his co-worker asked.

_It's a he! Definitely not me!_ Leaf continued to listen. She had was starting to form a picture of this person. _Keep talking!_ Leaf mentally urged.

"I think that guy knows more than meets the eye. I mean, when he was here three days ago he seemed to know nothing and when he contacted us yesterday he seemed pretty positive that he would be right." The first guy pointed out.

_He was here three days ago?_ Leaf started to put an identity to his name. _Gary? It must be him!_ Leaf concluded as the two policemen finished their drinks and threw away the disposable cups in the bin beside them and left to go back to whatever it is they were meant to be doing. Leaf mentally scolded the policemen for not slacking off longer but at least she found something out what mattered to her the most by far: Gary is safe.

Xx-x-xX

After being held at the police station for what seemed like a lifetime, they were finally sent away, by the police. The professor came to pick Leaf up from the police station. The car journey back to his house was not quite like you would expect when in a car with your best friend's grandparent (if one ever found themselves in such a situation). Leaf had always thought of the professor as her own grandparent (seeing she has none) so talking to him had always been easy for her.

"Can I ask you something?" Leaf asked expressionlessly. The professor detected the seriousness in her voice and nodded his consent. "Have you heard from Gary?"

The professor thought it was a weird question. "No." he answered, "Have you?" he asked in return.

Leaf shook her head. "No but he contacted Drew on Sunday. He went to see his aunt Ivy."

"Ivy?" The professor repeated, puzzled about what he has just been told. "Why, Gary hates her."

"I thought it was weird too." Leaf said. She became quiet for a while after saying that. The professor did not say anything either. Leaf thought about what Drew said to her today. Was she looking in the wrong place? She was not sure but she was going to find out.

Xx-x-xX

When they made it back to the Oak household, the professor offered Leaf some to, which she declined politely, and then disappeared to his lab. He mumbled something about phoning Ivy on his way down. Leaf took his disappearance as an opportunity to think about what happened today. It was then that realisation finally hit Leaf: one of her utmost closest friend died from an incision across her neck.

Leaf felt herself start to cry. Where was a shoulder to cry on when she needed one? Last time when something happened to her parents, she had Gary's shoulder. When the thought of Gary returned, Leaf pulled herself together and wiped away the tear that was trickling down her cheek. Unzipping her bag, she pulled out the slip of paper from today and read it again. _Principals of Spectroscopy._ It finally dawned on her. It is not a section of chemistry but a title of a book.

A book in the Oak's library like Drew suggested.

Xx-x-xX

Whew! One out of four of the votes for this fic done! Keep voting if you like this story and have not already done so! And lastly, a review? Please? Thanks!

Much love, silver-hedgehog xx


	10. Just Follow the Clues

Where's My Dolly?

Okay, so I'm super into this story and have already written up the next chapter :D sorry to any Dawn fans out there. It had to be done!

Read away people!

Chapter 9: Just Follow the Clues

It was late. If Leaf had been awake enough, she would have realised that it was almost four in the morning. There were some rummaging sounds coming from the room across from hers.

She remembered hearing it last night but she figured she was just over tired and imagined it.

Leaf woke up the next day feeling extra cosy for a reason she was unaware of until she opened her eyes. She noticed that there was an additional blanket on her bed, covering her. The weather had not been great last night and she remembered thinking about using another blanket last night but after looking for one in her room and then Gary's, she gave up. She did not take Gary's, just in case he came home.

And maybe he did. Leaf noticed that the blanket that was on top of her one belongs to Gary. Upon this realisation, Leaf could not scramble out of bed quick enough and out of her room. She had expected Gary's room door to be shut but strangely enough, it was wide open. Leaf mentally kicked herself. She is not delusional. The noises she heard last night were indeed real!

But once she was in Gary's room, she noticed that no one was there but someone has been in the room. She noticed that that his books have been rearranged from their position that she had set them down on last time. They were now not open at specific pages but shut over and placed back on the shelf above the desk alphabetically - in its rightful place. Looking at the books sitting neatly on the shelf, it reminded Leaf of a library.

Xx-x-xX

Once dressed, Leaf made her way to the Oak's library which was situated on the bottom floor, through the backdoor in the living room. Leaf had only ever been in the vast library which had floor to ceiling shelves filled with books on three of the wall while the fourth was a floor to ceiling window which looked out into the dense woodland forest beyond the garden a couple of times. And each time she went in there, she was with Gary who seemed to know precisely where every book was kept, minimising the time they spent in there.

Leaf did not know where to start looking. None of the books were placed in any kind of chronological order, at least not one that Leaf understood. If her hunch about the writing on the scrap bit of paper was indeed right, then the book must be in amongst the mass of books somewhere; the school library had nothing on the topic she was looking for but the Oak's library had many books that dwell in specific topics, like the one she was looking for. But where would she start? All the books where neatly in line with each on the shelves except for one book.

Leaf reached up for that book, her fingertips just touching the bottom edge of it. It was a bit too high up for her to read the title from where she was standing. She tried to reach for it and eventually when she got it down, she read the title aloud. _Molecular biology._ Not what she was looking for but she opened it anyway. The book looked like it had something wedged in one of its pages and Leaf wanted to know what it was. It was a note. To her.

_Top shelf, left corner. _

_GO._

So the note was not exactly directed to her but Leaf could tell that the information on it told her precisely what she need to know. Leaf shoved the book back to where she took it from, a lot more easily than the process of retrieving it in the first place. She headed to the shelf that the note directed her to which was next to the window. The top shelf was too high up for anyone to reach so she slid the ladder along to where she needed it be. She climbed up the steps and hoped it was there, holding onto the red curtains to help her keep her balance once she made it to the top.

Her face lit up when she saw what she hoping to see. _Principals of Spectroscopy. _

"Jackpot." Leaf said to herself as she took the book down from the shelf and backed down from the ladder. She headed to one of the rustic looking leather seats by the window and stared blankly at the book. She could no longer remember why she needed the book so desperately but nevertheless, Leaf opened the book to a random page and there was another letter in it. A longer one this time and yet again, this letter was not directed at her.

_Victims 1 and 2: Leaf's Parents (Thursday 12__th__ Oct.)_

_Victim 3: Sophia Burnell (Friday 13__th__ Oct.)_

_Victim 4: Aide Ferguson (Saturday 15__th__ Oct)_

_Victim 5: Dawn Berlitz (Tuesday 18__th__ Oct.)_

_All victims had an incision round their neck and at each crime scene no weapon was left behind._

_Day that the lab was robbed: Wednesday 11__th__ October._

Leaf folded the note over once she had read it, she was absolutely certain that this was Gary's doing. His writing was what everyone would call one of a kind. But suddenly Leaf unfolded the sheet again, a connection hitting her hard. Her parent's, Sophia Burnell's parents and Aide Ferguson all carried out work revolving round this project that was stolen from the lab. But what about Dawn? Her parents have nothing to do with the project so why was she murdered? Leaf sighed. Maybe she had not worked it out after all.

Xx-x-xX

The next morning at school was different. Leaf entered homeroom to none of her usual friends instead of a grumpy (but secretly smitten) May alongside an optimistic and always upbeat Dawn and her slacker of a best friend Gary. She concluded that May must've taken an additional day off school to cope with Dawn's unexpected departure.

Leaf sighed and sat there thinking about things that have happened this week. She sighed again when she suddenly remembered something. She had not seen the professor since two days ago when he scurried down to him lab to make a phone call to Ivy.

The brunette snapped out of her thoughts when she was ushered out of homeroom and to whatever class she was in, though she never did show up to class today. She wanted to find a certain green haired boy instead.

And as if her wish had been granted, Drew appeared right before her. They signed out of school and headed to a local café, occupying the discrete table hidden at the back of the petite building.

"How did you know that what I was looking for would be in the Oak's library?" Leaf wasted no time on general chit chat and went straight into her question.

"I take it you found what you were looking for." Drew said his voice was calm like always.

Leaf nodded. "I did though I wasn't actually too sure about what I was looking for." She confessed. "You seemed even surer than me." Leaf said, not even bothering to hide the fact that she was suspicious of Drew. Her eyes were narrowed at him. "You've been in contact with Gary." She accused.

Drew shook his head. "More like the other way around." Leaf was surprised by this. She urged Drew to elaborate. "He called me two days ago but again it was a bad connection. I couldn't really make out what her wanted me to do but I gathered from what I could hear that he wanted you to go to his family's library."

"Wait, if he called you two days ago, before lunchtime when you came to find me," Leaf started, confused; she dug around her fleece pocket for the piece of paper that she was led to. "How did her know about Dawn's death so soon?" she looked at Drew who looked just as confused as she did.

Xx-x-xX

For the first time since last week, Leaf went back to her own home. The damage in the kitchen was still evident, only the scrap broken bits had been cleared away. Her bedroom looked the same as the last time she saw it except the bed had been removed and not yet replaced.

Leaf settled down on the couch in the living room and read the headline of the papers she picked up from the porch on the way in. Apparently the paper boy did not know about what has happened to the Greens and kept delivering papers to their door each morning. There was nothing that Leaf found particularly fascinating in the papers so she set it down on the table and switched on the television, something she had not watched in a long time.

… _Officer Jenny has claimed that all the links from the Oak laboratory are dead. The police have released an official statement stating that the case may be closed due to lack of links to follow and the more urgent cases of the recent attacks which has successfully killed three and critically injured two._

Leaf switched the television off after hearing that little bit of news and pulled out the bit of paper from her pocket again.

_Day that the lab was robbed: Wednesday 11__th__ October._

_Victims 1 and 2: Leaf's Parents (Thursday 12__th__ Oct.)_

Out of the dates on the sheet, the two she read again stood out the most. "Are suggesting that the two events are related?" she asked the sheet as if it was Gary and although she got no reply from the stagnant house, she had a feeling that she was right.

Xx-x-xX

It was almost dinner time when she returned from the hospital after checking up on her parents. Her mum's condition had improved vastly since last week when she was found but her dad was still the same, sometimes attempting to slip away from life.

The Oak house was quiet, very quiet and if you ask Leaf, a bit too quiet. Leaf went down to the lab to see if professor Oak was around. And he was not. Leaf took this as an opportunity to snoop about in his lab, something she had not done in a long time and never had she felt so scared to do it.

The lab was in a state, not what she had expected seeing Gary was such a tidy person when it came to his books and paperwork but then again, she should of seen it coming when she went into the library the yesterday. Leaf did not know where to start looking from. The paper was spilling off of the tables and onto the floor, almost covering it all. Leaf looked over towards the computer. Any luck and the computer may still be on but when Leaf approached it, she realised that it was off and when switched on, it required a password. She did not want to risk anything for a change seeing as it was the professor and he probably did have some sort of over dramatic alarm system or whatever. She continued to look and what she found under a mound of paper was rather striking. _Physiology of the Brain._

She recalled seeing the chapter of Gary's textbook open at the page titled _Physiology of the brain _and the book sitting right before her eyes was title that too. Maybe Gary _was _onto something when he left and if Leaf's guess is correct, then that should be the reason why Gary left.

Xx-x-xX

That night Leaf tried to piece together what she knew about the case of the dead victims and the case of the stolen lab project. The first thing she wrote down was the dates of all the attacks of the date the lab was robbed, followed by the fact that the stolen project was highly likely to be biology related, allowing her to rule out a few things but not many and the final thing she wrote down was something that she could not seem to get her head round: there _is_ a way to find out who the next victim is. Or so she thought.

Leaf looked at her list, unsatisfied as to how much was on it. Maybe she had found out less than she thought. "This seems really short. Surely I must know more than that." She sighed.

"Think again. You have definitely missed something." An all too familiar vice said from the door, causing Leaf to scream.

Xx-x-xX

Woohoo! I'm on a roll! I'm really into writing this and will defo finish it soon! But for now, reviews please? Tell me if you love it, hate, think it is absolutle crap or sitting on the fence about it! Also, any guesses as to who that is at the end?

Love ya! Silver-hedgehog


	11. Return of the Mighty Oak

Where's My Dolly?

Well, hopefully you can work out the gist of this chapter by the title of it :D

Chapter 10: The Return of the Mighty Oak

Leaf screamed and when she finally stopped, she looked at the figure before her intently. "How did you get in here, Drew?"

He shrugged nonchalantly. "Walked in the front door like what most people would tend to do." She leaned against the door frame

"Why are you here?" Leaf asked and Drew shrugged in response.

"I got a text saying to come here."

"But I locked the door."

"No you didn't. The door was unlocked when I opened it." Drew said, confusing Leaf. They both remained silent for a while until someone else spoke, a surprising third party.

"That's cause I unlocked it." Said a third party brunet, whose appearance shocked both Leaf and Drew, as he entered the room with a small stack of books in his arms and a bunch of paper that was threatening to escape to the floor. He set the books down onto the desk and turned to face his dumbstruck friends.

"Oak!" Leaf and Drew both said but in different tones. Drew's tone was more cool and collected whereas Leaf's tone was one of surprise and excitement. She jumped off the bed and onto Gary, latching onto him in a freakishly tight hug, if something so tight could still be considered a hug. Gary caught the girl and hugged her back.

When Leaf finally decided to let go, she gave her friend a slap across the face but justified it afterwards. "That's for disappearing like that without a word."

Gary rubbed his burning, red cheek. "Cause explaining why you just slapped me makes the slap itself okay…" He muttered to himself.

Drew coughed to catch his two friends' attention. "Not to interrupt but why am I here?"

Gary sat on the desk and lifted up one of the books. "We could use an extra brain." He said, which explains why he did not invite Ash over. Leaf read the title of the book. _Physiology of the Brain._

"Why?" Drew asked. His position from the door was still the same as before. He did not even bother to enter the room.

"Because it has a lot to do with the missing project." Gary clarified, "But I guess I should tell you guys what I've found out while I was away." He picked up the sheets of paper and found one that had all his initial findings on it and started from there. "So I guess that Saturday after Leaf and I returned from the police station would be a good place to start."

***FLASHBACK* (Gary's POV seeing as he's meant to be telling the story)**

When we heard that hiker scream and found that body, I realised something. We know that person. I know him better than Leaf seeing as he was always here, especially since the project started along with Professor Burnell, Professor Fergusson and your parents, Leaf. After we left the police station that night, I went to see my gramps and I asked him what he knows.

He said some things about the project being controversial and unstable but he didn't say what the project is but he said he knows that it is the projects instability that's causing everything from the break in at your house to the attack on all five of the of the victims. But I could tell that my gramps wasn't going to tell me anything else so I took off to see someone else who was initially involved with the project but dropped out because it went against her moral: Professor Ivy.

She said that the project involved using a human brain transplant, which made sense since I noticed the gramps trying to cover a book titled _Physiology of the Brain._ She knows where the brain came from but she didn't know who it came from so that's when I decided to do some investigating.

Mr Alexander Courtez, aged 39 died in a car accident just a few weeks ago. He was a registered organ donor. He was the man who donated his brain to the project. At first nothing seemed wrong with this guy but when I researched into this guy further, I found out that he was a from a family of doctors and he often went abroad to do charity to work which didn't add up. I am so sure that when a brain is transplanted from one organism to another, all of its memory and personality traits remain.

After finding that out, I decided it was time to return to research brains when but then Ivy told me one more thing. Bill was the one who operates the computer systems at the organ donor centre in Cerulean which means he controls which organs get sent to where in Kanto via the computer system so I was going to go see him but he seems awfully busy but luckily Daisy was more than happy to ask him a few for me, discretely of course.

***END FLASHBACK***

"But wait," Drew interrupted as soon as Gary finished. "How did you know about Dawn's death before she was found. Your call to me was the day before she was found."

"A hunch." Gary said, a sceptical at his own answer but neither of the others urged him for an answer.

"And you left me clues?" Leaf said as she held up the note that she found in the book in the library.

Gary nodded, "I wasn't going to come back so soon but my last link died, literally." He said.

"Dawn was your last link?" Leaf asked

Gary shook his head. "No. The guy who removed and delivered the brain is or rather was."

"How'd that guy die?" Drew asked.

"Hill walking accident. He fell off a cliff and broke his neck." Gary answered, "And died instantly."

Drew whistled and Leaf gasped. "That must've hurt." Leaf said.

"Yeah but I was thinking we could team up and do some investigating." Gary suggested as he hand Leaf one of the books and Drew a sheet with a few words scrawled on it. Leaf flicked through the book quickly and shut it over again and looked up at Gary. Drew glanced at the sheet of paper. "I think what we need to do is split up and research things. Drew's parents have access to the citizen records of Kanto so I was thinking you should research the people on that list; find all you can about them."

Drew read out the names and looked at Gary and Leaf. "I'll see what I can do."

"As for Leaf and I, we need to raid your parents and my gramps' folders and files and everything about this project and see what we can find and research what we can about the brain." Gary said, earning confirming nods from his friends. "But for now, I think we should sit down to a cup of tea."

And that is exactly what they did next. The three of them made their way down the wooden stair and into the kitchen, settling down to tea and nothing else. The kitchen was fresh out of cakes and biscuits and all other snacks.

"I hope professor Oak's okay." Leaf sighed, "I haven't seen him in a while." Leaf said. She had her hands wrapped round her hands, allowing the heat to seep through the cup and into her skin. She rested her elbows on the kitchen counter.

"Oh yeah, he's fine." Gary said, waving away Leaf's concern casually. "He's away to talk to Ivy." He was sitting on one of the bar stools by the open window of the kitchen.

Drew was sitting next to Gary. He drank his tea relatively quickly. "Seeing as you managed to suss out Dawn's death, who do you think will be next?" Drew wondered.

Gary shrugged, "I have no clue." He admitted, setting his mug down onto the table. Watching Gary do that reminded Leaf about the note she found in her favourite mug which she was using now.

The room became silent after that, giving Leaf time to remember something that she noticed before but did not give much thought about at the time. "The day we found Dawn," she looked up from her mug and looked at Drew, "when we were in that classroom, I don't know if it was just me but I noticed the doll display was mucked up." This caught both Drew and Gary's attention. "Three of the dolls were sitting up perfectly with their china in place but then there was my doll. It was lying down with its teacup sitting upside-down but perfectly across from one of the dolls and the saucer was gone."

"Where's your doll now, Leaf?" Gary asked. He put his mug and Drew's into the basin.

"I think it's still in art. We weren't allowed to take anything from art until the police and forensic scientists were done." Leaf said. "But I left early today so I don't know if they were finished or not."

"I left early too so I don't know either." Drew said when Leaf looked at him.

"Pick it up tomorrow. I'll come with." Gary offered.

"Wait, you're going to school tomorrow?" Leaf asked, surprised, "You're going to face up to Lt. Surge's wrath?"

Gary thought for a moment. "I'll see you after homeroom tomorrow."

Xx-x-xX

It was almost midnight. Drew left around two hours ago after chatting a little longer with Gary about girls and his latest "attainments" while Gary was away. Leaf had left the guys to talk while she headed up to shower then to bed. But two hours later she was still wide awake. The thrill of Gary being back had temporarily mucked up her sleeping pattern, not that she ever had a proper one. But still she, she remained lying down under the duvets listening to Gary in his room, not that she had a choice; the rest of the house excluding Gary's room was pin-drop silent.

Gary came out of his room with nothing but a pair of boxers on a towel round his neck, catching the little droplets of water that dripped from his hair. He wanted to do nothing more than to sleep after travelling from place to place over the past few days and trying to piece together what he knew. He laid back on his bed and to his surprise; his bed was not as soft as he remembered it to be. He shuffled his hand about and then it hit him. His duvet was still in Leaf's room from the night he came back to slip the note in the library. He compensated whether he should go and take his duvet back which he decided he should and to go check up on Leaf.

The said girl was lying in bed all tucked in, listening intently as she heard Gary's room door open. She was prepared to pounce out of bed and tackle Gary to the floor if she hears him leave again. But to her surprise, she heard her room door open, allowing an increasing brightness into the room. She shut her eyes, trying to listen what Gary her best friend was up to.

Gary looked at Leaf on the bed. She looked so content. Gary did not want to wake her from her sleep, as much as he loved to. Instead, he tried something else.

Leaf felt the blanket that was closest to her move and before she knew it, she felt another figure lying closely beside her under the blanket.

Gary shuffled closer, trying not to wake his friend.

"I'm not actually asleep, you know." Leaf stated, her voice sounding awake and not at all groggy. She turned to face him.

"Good." Gary said. He had his arms folded behind his head and his eyes were looking up at the ceiling.

"Why didn't you take me with you when left?" Leaf asked. The question had been bugging her since he came back but she wanted to wait until it was just her and Gary when she asked.

"I have a theory." Gary announced, he turned his head towards Leaf and looked at, his face serious. "But you're not going to like it."

This perked Leaf's interest. She sat up and looked down at Gary. "Elaborate." She said, her voice levelling Gary's serious tone.

"You're life would've been in greater danger away that if you were here." When he said it he did not look at Leaf. He tried to lighten mood after announcing his theory by snaking a hand round Leaf's waist and dragging her back down onto the bed and tickling her. It reminded her of when they were little, a fun time; the best times.

Judging by how much fun they were having now, they could already tell that tomorrow is going to be an absolute nightmare.

Xx-x-xX

So, as reviewers were hoping, Gary is NOT dead! AND I ended this chapter in a slightly high note… Well, higher than usual anyway :D so I hope you liked it and I'm hoping there will be a review heading my way? Feedback/ criticism/ praise are always appreciated! Thanks for you support so far and it coming!

silver-hedgehog


	12. A Witness

Where's My Dolly?

Hey readers I have a new chapter for ya! Shouldn't be too long before the story comes to an end. Big thanks to all my reviewers!

Anyway, let's get going with this new chapter :D

Chapter 11: A Witness

May went to school early today with Dawn's mother Johanna tagging along to pick up her daughter's belongings from the art department. In the room, May felt it hard to remain there without thinking about Dawn; she would never go in the art department without Dawn due to her strong dislike towards the subject. May politely excused herself from the room while Johanna packed up some stuff into the cardboard box.

May left the art department, through the maths department and stopped along the balcony of the second floor for some air a she tried to stop herself from feeling the hurt of losing her best friend; her only friend that she could tell absolutely everything to, her future maid of honour. She tried so hard to shake the thought of her out of her head but nothing seemed to work. She felt the first tear of the day trickle down the velvety skin of her cheek then a sudden warmth that brushed it away.

"Just let it all out." Said Drew, who appeared seemingly out of nowhere to wipe the tear from her and wrap a comforting arm round her. He let May cry on his shoulder until she calmed down from her hysterical state. "Feeling better now?" He asked her.

May nodded and muttered a quiet "thanks" as she wiped her eyes with the back of her hands, smudging the little make up she wore in the process of doing so. "I better get going." May forced a smile to show Drew that she was feeling fine and tried to dismiss herself when a he stopped her.

"Do you need help?" He asked her, his hand griping her hand lightly. If May wanted, she could easily pull away but instead she nodded and let Drew follow her back to the art department.

* * *

Leaf sat at the dinner table by herself. The professor was still not back and neither was Daisy, who had called to say she wasn't going to be back for a few days. Gary on the other hand had still not shown up to breakfast yet but Leaf did hear him in his own room this morning after he had left her room and migrated back to his own.

Leaf's mind drifted back to last night and smiled at the thought of Gary being back, completely unharmed with an added bonus of a plan. She couldn't hide her smile, and flashed it to the empty chairs round the table, completely unaware of what was happening around her, even when Gary entered the room.

"You're awfully smiley today," He said in her ear, snapping Leaf out of her daze, before continuing into the kitchen to grab some bread and shoving it in the toaster. "Care to share?" He asked her from the open window that connected the kitchen to the dining room. He was leaning on one of his hands as his elbows rested on the counter of the window.

Leaf stuck her tongue out at him instead of answering.

Gary smirked at her. "So mature." Gary commented sarcastically, causing her to laugh. "What were you actually smiling about?"

Leaf though for a moment. Tell him or not to tell him? The latter was probably more fun. And entertaining. "Nothing in particular." She replied casually.

This time Gary raised an eyebrow at her. "Mm-hm." He commented as he took his perfectly browned toast from the toaster. "In which case I won't tell you something else I know that you don't." He said as he dipped his knife into the jar of strawberry jam.

His last words caught Leaf's attention. She looked at him, curiosity was written across her forehead and her tone when she said "talk to me" showed her eagerness to know what he knew.

Gary pretend to give telling her his newly found information some thought but spilled when Leaf shouted at him to just tell him. He really loved to poke at her curiosity sometimes. "I'll tell you on the way to school."

Leaf pouted. She was probably going to have to wait until he had finished his toast before they left, and knowing Gary, he was going to take his time; even if it meant being late.

* * *

To Leaf's surprise, they weren't late. They made it to school with more time to spare than she thought so as a result, they stood by their lockers for as long as possible, trying to avoid homeroom for as long as possible. Leaf and Gary were in conversation when Drew approached them.

"Morning." He greeted.

Gary nodded and Leaf smiled.

"As I was saying, Gary, we need to go to art and get the dolly." Leaf said.

"We will but I'm wondering why Drew has a wet patch on his shirt. Drooling much?" Gary pointed to the spot he was talking about.

Drew looked down. "Long story but I got a bit of research done." Drew said, catching the two brunets' attention. They looked at him, giving him a look to urge him to elaborate. He understood and was about to do so when they were caught.

Caught standing by their lockers looking like they were engaging in idle chit chat when they should've been in homeroom doing whatever it was they did in there. Usually Leaf would be chatting away while Gary not so subtly eavesdropped. Drew on the other hand was in a different registration class and usually spent his time silently thinking up of ways to annoy his favourite brunette, though, he'd never call her that to her face – or call May that to anyone for that matter.

They headed off to their respective homerooms without hearing what Drew had found. That was going to have to wait till later. Longer than they thought.

"Who did you ask Drew to research?" Leaf asked, she never did ask him last night, she was too busy wondering why he hadn't asked her to do the identity snooping. "And what's this thing you know that I don't?"

Gary smirked at that second question. "Leaf, I know a lot of things that you don't." He replied, ignoring her first question.

"Now's not a good time to tell you but I'll tell you later." He said and Leaf groaned. "But the guy I asked to research Drew to research is Tim Well." Gary answered.

Leaf thought for a moment at that name. It sounded awfully familiar to her. "The very famous and incredibly rich Mr Wells? The one who owns the Celadon department store?" she questioned, "Why him?"

"I have my theories." Gary said as they entered homeroom to see May looking upset still and Lt. Surge looking. . . Angry. But that was nothing new. "But again, I'll tell you later."

Leaf nodded and turned to May, putting a comforting arm around her and giving her a hug. She knew now wasn't the time to talk about such things. May could probably use a break from all the news. "Are you okay, May?" she asked her. Leaf had to admit that she was surprised that May returned to school so quickly.

May nodded. "I'm fine." She whispered so quietly that Leaf, who was right next to her, could only just make it out.

Leaf continued to hug her friend as she conversed with Gary. "What do we have first?" she asked him.

"Chemistry." He replied.

Leaf nodded. "May, why don't we walk you to class." Leaf suggested and her friend nodded. "What do you have first?"

"Biology." May replied, quietly like before.

"If we go to the science department via the art department we can pick up your doll." Gary suggested and Leaf agreed.

And that was the route they took when homeroom ended. The three of them walked along the balcony through the maths department and into the art department but to Leaf's surprise, the entire doll display that Dawn had set up only days ago was gone – not even the blue sky backdrop was present. It looked odd to see many fancy displays then suddenly a break in amongst all them where Dawn's one previously was.

"That's funny," Leaf started, "Everything's gone." Leaf said, confused.

"Johanna came in today and picked up all of Dawn's things. She must've mistaken your doll for one of Dawn's and taken it. I'll get it back for you." May said. This was the most she had spoken at once since Dawn had died.

"Thanks May." Leaf said as she hugged her friend before continuing her escort to class.

* * *

Gary had called for a group meeting about their latest findings and Drew had offered to hold it at his house, which seemed slightly out of character. But nonetheless, they went along with his offer. Gary drove them there and once they were there, they went in and sat in Drew's room where they would not be disturbed by his mum or dad or whoever happened to be in.

This was the first time leaf had been in Drew's room. It was quite tidy, a lot tidier than she expected, especially from a guy. All the books were place neatly in line on the bookshelf, his bed made and crease free (but not after Gary sat down) and his curtains were drawn back, revealing the double doors that opened to reveal the balcony.

Leaf stood at the balcony of his lavish home and looked outside onto the main road, watching the beautiful array of flowers in the front garden, the animals run across the road in anticipation of their owners return from school and the bus drop off the students from their school. She loved how she didn't need to take a bus anymore, not that she did in the first place. The house across the road looked familiar to her. And so did that car. And so did that-

Suddenly they heard a scream.

Gary and Drew immediately ran over to the balcony and glanced out. The scream was long and most likely ear piercing if they were up close.

Drew almost instantly turned away from the balcony and headed to his room door after he heard the scream fade. He knew it came from the house across the road.

Gary and Leaf followed him but he was running fast, missing out steps as he descended the stairs and ran towards the door which was open, probably from his parents when they ran out the house. By the time he got there a crowd had already gathered round the house and there was someone at the door, trying to open it but to no luck. The door was locked. The man eventually resorted to trying to ram the door down using sheer strength.

When Leaf stepped onto the front lawn of the house, it triggered her memory; she recognised this place right away. This was where Dawn lived, when she was still alive. But that scream didn't sound like it came from a woman in her forties'; it sounded like it came from a teenage girl. And that's when it hit her. May was in there retrieving her doll. Leaf's eyes widened at that realisation. She hurried over to Gary and Drew and informed them, "That's May in there!"

As soon as dew's brain managed to process Leaf's words. He instantly made his way over to the door, suddenly much keener on helping than before. The man managed to ram the door down just as Drew got there. The two of them entered with Gary and Leaf following swiftly behind and what they saw in there was not pretty.

There was blood on the floor next to the woman with the beautiful blue locks and in the corner of the living room was May, curled up in a ball with her hands over her ears while her eyes shut as tightly as possible. In front of her was Leaf's doll which Johanna had probably handed to May but dropped when she found Johanna lying on the floor. Or that's what the scenario before them looked like.

She was in shock. She was having a panic attack. But why? May had never suffered from anything like that before, not that her friends and family knew of and they knew _everything_ about her.

But what they didn't know was what May shouldn't have seen. And it didn't look like they were going to find out any time soon.

The man checked Johanna for a pulse while Drew went over to May, and pulled her into him. Even though her shaking had calmed down a bit, she still wouldn't move he hands from her ears or open her eyes.

Leaf, Gary and Drew looked at each other, the same thought hitting them. The meeting was going to have to be postponed while they comforted May, who may know something they don't.

* * *

… So May's in shock :O And is Johanna dead? But most importantly, did May witness the murder?

Hope you all enjoyed it and don't forget to review if you want to find out!

~ silver-hedgehog


	13. Meeting

**Where's My Dolly?**

Hey guys, I'm back with another chapter and the first thing I'd like to say is that someone (can't remember who, sorry! XD) pointed out that my author's note at the end was wrong. I left out the 'If so' but never mind.

Anyway, I have nothing else to say so read on!

Chapter 12: Meetings

Leaf sure was getting used to going to the police station a lot. She had just finished being interrogated by the same officer as her last two visits. Judging by tone they used when they spoke to her, she was guessing that the police thought she was the culprit who has been successful in killing four (including Johanna) and critically injuring two and May…

No one knew what was wrong with May but she was taken to hospital and Drew went with her. For a long time, May wouldn't say anything and when they did manage to get her to speak; all she did was scream "Stop!" repeatedly, hands clutching her ears tightly.

Leaf wondered why she was always the one who finished first when giving a statement and end up sitting outside waiting for whoever she was with. Another thought that she kept thinking about was whether the copes suspected her of anything, after all, she was involved in some way or another with four of the victims. She let out a bitter laugh as she pictured the detectives with a big board with her picture on it and all the evidence; all of it pointing towards her.

Leaf had practically claimed this seat to be her seat, the seat she occupied when she was here waiting. And what a good seat it was.

"Getting that girl to speak again is going to be an absolute nightmare." Leaf heard a man say.

She took a quick glance towards the vending machine, and noticed that it was the man and his colleague from her past two trips that were speaking. Leaf was starting to think that it was fate that she'd see them every time – they made her somewhat feel at home.

"So that's another victim claimed and one traumatised." The first officer said casually.

"Yeah, this case isn't looking good. It's making the chief grumpier than usual." The second officer said as he inserted a coin into the vending machine.

'Keep talking about the case, no one cares about your boss' grumpiness.' Leaf thought to herself.

"Yeah, I know, I hate this job so much."

'Yeah that's because you're rubbish at it.' Leaf thought, 'You two are leaking all the information out! Not that I'm complaining...'

"So what do you think of that spikey haired guy? Do you think he's a likely suspect?" The second officer asked. He had his back leaning on the wall, indicating to Leaf that he wasn't going to be leving anytime soon, to her luck.

"That guy? Maybe, I mean, he was right about that one prediction he was absolutely positive about. You don't suppose he's doing all of it, do you?"

'Gary predicted one of them?' Leaf asked herself, 'He told me and Drew that it was just a hunch.' She sat right on the edge of her seat, trying to hear as much as she could and as well as she could.

"I would say yes but he has an alibi every time! And what criminal would put themselves on the spot like that… Unless he's playing some sort of mind game on us..." The officer trailed off, giving Leaf some time to absorb what she had just heard and to comprehend it properly.

The first officer slapped the second officer on the arm. "Chief," he said which caused the second officer to stand up straight.

The chief shot them a 'get back to work' look and the two officers left, leaving Leaf all by herself on the metal seat again.

Leaf sat back on her seat and shut her eyes tightly and exhaled loudly. "My life is seriously out of balance." Leaf said to her doll which had been sitting in her lap the whole time.

"You bet it is." Gary said as he emerged from round the corner and took the spare seat to Leaf's right. "Do you want to go home now or do you want to go see May at the hospital?"

Leaf sighed. "Let's go to the hospital, I want to see my parents while I'm there." Leaf tucked her doll into her bag despite it being too big to fit in then got up and left.

Xxxxxx

It wasn't that late yet, possible eight at night, nine at the latest, but the hospital was rather quiet. It didn't take them long to work out where May was being kept thanks to Drew, who they had called upon their arrival.

Leaf and Gary took a peek into the glass window on the door before entering; making sure that May wasn't asleep or anything like that. They both noticed that the brunette had calmed from her traumatic state dramatically over the past few hours of being apart.

Gary opened the door and let himself in with Leaf following closely behind. May's expression was one of curiosity more than anything when she saw them, her hands clutched the blanket so tightly that they were had turned white and her legs were pulled to her chest. It appeared to them like she didn't recognise them and that she was taking caution that they may possess some sort of threat towards her if she let her guard down.

The moment Leaf took a step to Gary's side, May started screeching, screaming for mercy. Leaf and Gary covered their ears while Drew held May, trying to calm her down.

A doctor followed by a nurse entered the room in an instant and scooted the three teens out while they did various mentally calming procedures on May.

"What just happened?" Gary asked. He was barely in the room for thirty seconds before he was thrown out.

"I don't know. She was completely fine up until you two showed up." Drew replied as he leaned against the wall next to the door.

"Seriously, what is wrong with my life at the moment? One of my closest girl friends just looked mortified at me." Leaf muttered to herself.

"Okay, so today's meeting went not quite as planned." Gary said, the others nodded. "Let's try again tomorrow, same time but my place."

Xxxxxx

Drew groaned again. "Seriously, where is that guy? He calls a meeting and shows up late himself!" He had made himself comfy on the seat in the library by the big windows which over looked the garden. He had a folder with a few sheets of paper with him.

"I know, he had all his things gathered up and he looked ready and was rushing me and where is he? That's right, late." Leaf complained. She had a note pad with her, ready to write down things that she thought might be useful in some way or another.

They heard the door open with a creak and whipped their heads round to look at the said boy enter.

"Finally!" They both exclaimed.

"I had an important phone call to take!" Gary defended.

"With who? Your next date?" Drew teased, something that he'd being doing less lately.

"With my sister actually."

Leaf looked curious. "What did she say?"

"A lot. Apparently, on the day Alexander Courtez died, another person also died at the same time in the same car accident."

"Who and why does it matter?" Drew asked sceptically.

"Because that other guy that died was well known to be involved with many murders but due to lack of evidence, was released on every account." Gary explained. "But we all know him better as George Little."

"I remember that name." Leaf said, "He's been suspected for over eight cases and got away each time."

"Exactly. And interestingly enough, Daisy managed to find out that he's also thirty nine years old and has the same hair colour as Alexander Courtez."

"So you're saying that there was a mix up with the bodies and which person was actually the organ donor?" Drew asked, his eyebrow raised.

Gary shook his head. "I'm not saying that's what happened, I'm just saying that it could be a possibility. Daisy said she'll send pictures of the guys' files over later when Bill's not looking."

"What you were saying does seem more likely seeing as Courtez, who was first on the list was a very charitable man who used to teach healthcare in abroad to rural villages. I also managed to find out that he's a surgeon and he's married with one daughter. Her other daughter, Marcie Courtez, died about a year ago in a hit and run case here in Pallet Town but due to lack of evidence, the driver got away with it."

"I remember that, my parents helped out with that case, they carried out analysis on the driver's blood and urine for alcohol and drugs." Leaf chipped in. She often found herself fascinated in her parent's work and asked about it whenever they helped out the police in analytical work for certain crimes.

"Sophie Burnell, cheerleader, fourteen when she died, goes to Pallet High, daughter of Mark and Frankie Burnell. Was reported to be missing for a day before she died." Drew read out from another sheet of paper from his neatly arranged folder. "Then there was Jack Ferguson, researcher at the Oak labs, he was thirty when he died and was reported missing for three days before his body was found."

"Were all the suspects reported missing before they were found?" Leaf asked, trying to think of all the victims.

"No," Drew answered. "Johanna Berlitz didn't go missing and neither did May."

Leaf nodded, "How's May now? I really want to go see her but I don't want her to freak out when she sees us again." She said, referring to her and Gary, who she had noticed had gone silent.

Leaf and Drew looked at each other, surprised that he had not caught onto the subtle offensive remark towards him like he usually would.

"Gary?" Drew snapped his fingers in front of his face.

"What?" he asked, snapping back into reality and out of his thoughts.

"You just zoned out there." Leaf replied.

"It was nothing, just thinking about something. But how about we end this meeting and go see May."

Xxxxxx

Drew opened the door quietly, trying not to create any loud noises that could startle May. The brunette was sitting in bed with nothing but a note pad and a pencil in her hands. The doctors had told her family to encourage her to draw as part of a mental test for the psychiatrists.

This time when Gary and Leaf entered the room, May didn't start to scream like last time. But she had that same look on, only her gaze wasn't on both of them but Leaf only, or more precisely, her bag.

"She's staring at your bag." Gary pointed out.

Leaf nodded, "Yeah, it's one she gave me for Christmas." Leaf approached the bed, settling the bag down before she sat on the edge.

May flinched away from Leaf and to the other side at Leaf's action, causing raised eyebrows in the room. Leaf stood up again and took a step back.

Drew had already stepped in and put an arm round May, who huddled in for safety and protection from Leaf's bag which to May, must've possessed a threat in some form that only she could see.

Taken aback, Leaf left the room, Gary following closely behind.

"You okay, Leaf?" Gary asked as he sat down beside her.

Leaf nodded, "Yeah, just thought I should let Drew calm May down first."

Gary agreed. "Good idea but I'm thinking we need to change our plan a little."

"Talk to me." Leaf said, her mind instantly off being offended by May.

"May probably witnessed something really shocking, so I think it'd be a good idea if we got Drew to slowly ease her into speaking again and maybe he can get her to say what happened." Gary suggested, "While we investigated other things and wait to hear back from Daisy."

"Sounds like a plan." Drew said, suddenly appearing from the door.

Xxxxxx

Well, that's the end of this chapter :D hope you liked it and please review!

And I'd just like to say that I've noticed lots of mistakes in previous chapters when I looked at them to help me write this chapter and I'd like to apologise for them and the ones that were inevitably in this chapter too. I'll edit them tomorrow cause I am practically falling asleep now.

Goodnight :P


	14. Daisy

So, after reading through the reviews for my last chapter (thanks for the reviews, I'm loving reading what everyone thinks!), I have come to the conclusion that some people seem to be catching on to what I have planned for this story, which is good :D but no one has worked it out completely, which is awesome! Okay, so I'll be leaving more clues in this chapter so maybe someone can work it out before I finish the story. That's a challenge for you all!

Emm, just thought I should let you know that there's quite a bit of jumping about from character to character in this chapter, more so than the other chapters so please bear with me.

With my notes made, all I have left to say is happy investigating!

Chapter 13: Daisy?

She had the perfect life with the perfect looks, perfect hair, perfect figure and perfect boyfriend. What more could a girl ask for?

Daisy had waited a long time for her boyfriend of almost a year to fall asleep, and when he did, she cautiously unpeeled his arm from around her and snuck out of the bedroom, making sure that she didn't open the door too quickly and triggering the horrible creak.

She snuck across the hall to Bill's study, the place where she had found the information that she had sent to her little brother a few days ago. She hadn't sent him anything more since then seeing as she had not had a good opportunity to sneak in and look up the profiles of Alexander Courtez and George Little. At the thought of the second man mentioned, Daisy shuddered. S

If Daisy knew Bill well, she would be right in thinking that the computer should still be on and Bill's account should still be logged in. And she must've known him as well as she had thought seeing as she was right, and the donor profile listings were still up. To her surprise one of the two she was looking for was up.

Daisy felt her heart rate speed up dramatically. Under normal circumstances, she would enjoy the thrill of doing something behind peoples backs, it made her feel like a rebel, a spy or both. But never did she have to do something this serious which could land her in jail for snooping.

She sent the page to her brother and proceeded to look for George Little, who she doubt would even have a profile on this page, after all, he was a criminal. Did criminals even care about what happened to their organs once they were dead?

She didn't have time to answer her own question because of the shadow casted over her and a voice that called out to her.

Maybe she was going to find out the answer to her question now.

* * *

Word from Daisy had been pretty scarce lately. Gary had been exchanging discreet texts with his older sister over the past few days as well as getting on with his school work and investigating things about the missing project.

He sat on his chair at the table and tried to do some of the work that he had missed while he was away to see Ivy, but he found it hard to focus, knowing that Daisy could slip up and get caught for what she was doing and… Gary didn't want to think of the consequences. They would only worry him more and the guilt of knowing that Daisy could wind up in jail would eat him up.

Gary had spent about half, if not more, of his work time refreshing his email inbox in case Daisy suddenly emailed him. At some point, Gary thought that it was stupid of him to wait like that. It was three in the morning. If Daisy wasn't out at whatever club, she would at Bill's all snuggled up in bed, not doing things for him at hours like this.

When the hands on his clock signalled four, he gave up and retreated to his bed.

* * *

The pencil left many harsh lines on the page. The drawings, if they could be classed as drawings, made no sense.

The pieces of paper that had been thrown away from its epicentre by May were all over the place: on the floor, on the tables, on the chairs, under the bed – everywhere. But what was on the sheet? The same on every. Single. One.

* * *

"Bill, I thought you were asleep." Daisy said, trying to cover to shock in her voice. She was busted and she knew it.

"I was but then I rolled over and thought I'd squashed you but you weren't even there!" he said as he approached her. "What are you doing on my computer?" he asked her.

"I couldn't sleep so I was going to see if my brother was online, you know, it's just him and his girlfriend there. Just wanted to check up on them." Daisy said slyly. "But he's not online, which I should've guessed." She pulled a fake unimpressed look. "I'll just log out and we can go back to bed."

* * *

He felt his body move, not because he moved though. The movement was involuntary on his account. Slowly, he opened his eyes and saw an all too familiar brunette jumping on the half of the bed that he wasn't lying on.

He noticed that she seemed a little too into the jumping to realise that he was now fully awake and completely ready to make her stop his way. Imperceptibly, he moved his hands towards her ankles and grabbed them, yanking her down onto the bed and promptly rolling on top of her.

"Never wake a man like that." He said to her, his face less than an inch from hers. He got up after that and went into the bathroom, not bothering to put a shirt on as he got up.

Leaf just laid there, slightly dazzled by what just happened. Her heart raced and her temperature soared.

"What just happened?" Leaf asked herself, quietly.

* * *

He opened the door slightly, only popping a head in to see if May was awake or not and if so, whether she was busy or startled or anything like that.

May looked focused, focused on her work from the night before. Her eyes were bloodshot, her skin was pale and her hair was all over the place.

Drew was going to say something and decided against it and instead picked up a few of the sheets that covered the floor and looked at them. He flicked through each sheet quickly and came to the conclusion that they were all the same. A drawing of a hand holding a knife, though, he had admit that the proportions in the drawing was a bit off.

He looked at the piece of paper that May was drawing on.

And what he saw was another one of the same drawing, only this one was neater than the ones he had picked up.

* * *

Gary sat on the armchair, thinking about Daisy. He'd kept up his routine of checking his email every few minutes just in case Daisy had sent him anything. But other than a few emails from people he didn't care too much about, nothing that really mattered popped up.

Leaf was quiet. She sat in the arm chair opposite him in the library where they had their meeting a few days ago and watched the grass grow, literally.

"Why has Daisy not emailed back?" Gary asked frustrated with a hint of guilt.

"She'll be fine; she always gets things her way so I'm sure she's fine. It's probably Bill being all clingy and stuff because his girlfriend is way out of his league." Leaf said, voicing her real opinion of the man and making the mood less tense, but only for a second.

Gary agreed with that. He was not completely sure if Bill is right for his sister but only time would tell.

"I suppose so…" He said as he looked out the window too.

They sat in silence, doing nothing but watching the time go by slowly. They watched as all the airborne animals flew swept past the window and dove down onto the grass, hunting for a decent meal.

"What would you do if you were Daisy right now?" Gary asked.

Leaf diverted her gaze from the window to Gary, who kept his stare on the world outside. "Not sure, I mean, doing something like that… There's always a risk of getting caught by Bill at any moment."

"So you wouldn't have done it if you were Daisy?" he asked her.

Leaf shook her head. "I would've but email wouldn't be my first method of sending the info to you." Leaf said.

Gary looked at her curiously. "Why not?"

Leaf shrugged. "I personally find it harder to cover if I get caught. I'd probably use something like Skype. At least then I could quickly click onto someone and start talking to them if I did get caught."

"Leaf, if you're right, I'll declare as a genius; just a rank below me."

"'Scuse me," Leaf said, feigning an offended look, "I've always ranked above you."

"As if," Gary scoffed, "You're the one who got pinned down to the bed this morning. That doesn't happen to weak people."

Leaf opened her mouth. "Well, it's just because everything's out of balance in my life at the moment. Wait till everything goes back to normal, then we'll see if you'll be saying that!"

But then the thought hit them. Will things ever be normal again?

* * *

The door opened and the silence that was in the room was broken. All three of the heads that were in the room whipped round to see exactly who they were expecting: the green hair, green eyed boy.

He came in late for the meeting with Caroline Maple, Norman Maple and May's psychiatrist however, the still welcomed him in warmly, and pressed on with the meeting.

* * *

"Okay, where is that boy."

"I know. Boys are such bad time keepers!" Leaf complained, throwing her arms in the air.

Gary glared at Leaf. "Not the point and most definitely not true." He said, "But seriously, where is that boy? He should've been here over twenty minutes ago!"

As if right on cue, they heard the doorbell go.

"That better be him." Gary muttered as he rose to his feet and went to open the door, leaving Leaf to sit in the library.

When Gary returned from opening the door, he was followed by Drew. This time, his late arrival was not met with a warm welcome.

"Okay, now that Mr late is here, let's start this meeting." Gary announced as he and Drew took their seats.

The room fell silent. Nobody knew who should present their finding's first, but after a game of rock, paper, scissors, the result of the games concluded that Leaf was to present first.

"Okay, so this week I went home and had a poke around my parents' study." she started and pulled out a folder with lots of paper. "I had a skim through this stack and found that the project, which involved using a human organ transplant to animate things."

"What kind of things?" Drew asked.

Leaf shrugged. "Not sure. None of the sheets said what objects or what organs. But Gary did tell me to research the brain which is precisely what I did so that'd presumably be the organ. I didn't really find much about the brain except for stuff like how it functions, where it is, how big it is, how it can be affected by drugs and other chemicals, how memory is retained and the specialised areas."

"And how is memory retained?" Gary asked Leaf who handed him a page from her folder.

"Read it yourself." She said, "But interestingly enough, apparently memory from the brain donor is stored in the brain even when it's been transplanted into another person!"

Gary skimmed through the sheet. This was something he was going to have to read later and pay lots of attention to.

"And that's all I have so now I will pass the speaking stick to Gary." Leaf passed her pen to Gary. She held onto it the whole time she spoke.

"Uh, thanks Leaf… Anyway, I checked my Skype like you suggested Leaf and thanks to that suggestion, I got what we were waiting for." Gary said as he held up few sheets of paper. "Daisy had sent me the profile via Skype and I've printed each of us a copy."

Leaf mentally cheered as she was right about using Skype, and also Gary would have to admit to calling her a genius.

"Alexander Courtez, aged thirty-nine at the date of death." Drew read.

"Died in a car crash when it crashed into the car of George Little who strangely enough died from a deep incision in the neck which could not have been formed by the shards of the glass from his shattered wind screen. Little died from blood loss from the neck wound whereas Courtez died from the impact of the crash. The pressure caused his heart to stop beating and because there was no one around to witness the crash, no one knows how long ago the crash had happened and when the drivers died." Gary finished.

"Wait," Leaf interrupted. "How did Little get the neck wound then? It doesn't say so on your printout."

"Nobody knows." Gary replied. "Presumably a third party."

"Or from Courtez." Drew suggested. "While at hospital watching May, I had some time to do some research and found that Courtez was on antidepressants after his daughter died."

"So you're suggesting that Courtez died after Little?" Gary questioned.

"It's a possibility seeing as there were no witnesses, as you said." Drew pointed out.

"Where was this crash anyway?" Leaf asked.

"Outskirts of Vermillion City." Gary answered, "Why?"

"Professor Ivy lives near there and is often called in as a crime scene specialist, isn't she?"

"Good thinking Leaf, I'll pay her a visit and see if I can get anything out of that woman, that annoying woman." Gary said, rubbing his temples at the thought of his Aunt Ivy. How he was related to that woman, he wasn't sure – they were nothing alike!

"I think this is the first time I've seen you react like that about a woman." Drew stated and Leaf nodded.

It was true, Gary had been a skirt chaser since he had met Drew and even before then.

"She's not just any woman." Gary replied.

"Then why don't you bring Leaf with you?" Drew suggested.

Leaf's eyes shot opened. She had a vague memory of Professor Ivy from when she was a kid. She used to work with her parents too but later moved away to specialise in a different field of science. The memories Leaf had of Ivy were sparse and most definitely not all positive. Or even close to positive.

"Leaf, pack your bag, we're heading to Vermillion after school this Friday."

"Why can't Drew go instead of me?" Leaf asked in her pouty voice.

"I need to keep an eye on May and keep up to date with the analysis from her drawings. That was why I was late today." Drew explained.

"What did the doctors say about May?" Leaf asked, concerned about her friend. She had not visited her since a few days ago.

Drew searched his pockets and pulled out a piece of paper that had been folded over several times. He unfolded it and held it up, revealing one of May's drawings.

The picture was of a small hand holding onto an oversized knife.

"The psychiatrist said that this drawing that May had drawn over and over again may be what out her in the state she's in now." Drew said, passing the drawing to Leaf and Gary to get a better look of.

"Why is the knife so much bigger than the hand?" Leaf asked.

"The psychiatrists said it could be because that's what possessed the threat."

"Why is the hand wearing your bracelet, Leaf?" Gary asked as he looked at Leaf.

* * *

She let out a sigh.

"That Misty, she's gotta, like, stop leaving things lying about like that."

She picked up a t shirt lying on the wrong half of the room and tossed it onto Misty's bed. She turned to walk back to her half of the room and before she knew it, she tripped and fell onto the floor over something that she assumed to be Misty's.

"Gosh, how old are you? Still playing with dolls." She grumbled as she clambered back to her feet and propped the doll down on Misty's dresser.

Where the knife was.

* * *

The sky had darkened considerably since Drew had left the Oak residence.

Gary sat outside on the swing set that he and Daisy would use to play on. He looked up at the sky and let his thoughts roam free, though; he wished they would stop, especially when they were the thoughts that he had.

He felt a hand on touch his shoulder gently. "You look like you're thinking about something. Care to share the thought?" Leaf asked as she occupied the empty swing next to him, the one that Daisy had claimed as hers.

"It's Daisy." Gary sighed, "You know how she'll always answer her phone and never puts it down, right?"

"Who doesn't know what she's like?" Leaf commented.

"I can't get through to her."

* * *

So, this is my longest chapter for this story so far, just a wee fact for ya. Anyway, next chapter, Leaf and Gary set off to Vermillion and Drew watches May but of course there's going to be more to it :D and I had a reviewer asking about the doll's eye colour and stuff and I'd like to say that you're absolutely correct in saying that I'll reveal its importance later, not that I had forgotten about it…

Anyway, review please and I'll get cracking with the next chapter soon :D Let's pray that Daisy will be okay!


	15. One Long Friday

Well, the next chapter is finally up :D definitely took longer than I thought because of a slight obsession with _The Hunger Games_. Anyway, the chapter is up now and I hope you like it. Read awaym peeps and peepettes :D

Chapter 14: One Long Friday

_It's all about the money, mon-_

_Can we pretend that airplane in the-_

"Can you just pick a song already?" Garycomplained.

Leaf huffed. "No, not until I find a suitable song for the journey."

It was Friday after school and Gary had just pulled the car out of school grounds. They had not left Pallet Town yet but Leaf had already found a way to annoy Gary for the next few hours and there was nothing he could do about it.

"Just pick up the iPod and look for a song yourself instead of skipping through each song before we've even heard a minute of it." He complained. Leaf pouted but complied anyway. Only for one song though.

_Going back to the corner where I first saw you_

_Gonna camp in my sleeping bag, I'm not gonna move_

"That's better." Leaf said once she found a song that she liked enough to listen to. "What was all that trashy stuff on your iPod anyway?"

"It's not trashy, it's just because you listened to every song for what? A minute?" Gary pointed out, making the turn out of Pallet Town. "Maybe if you-"

Leaf hushed Gary. "Not until the song is over." Leaf said with a finger over her lips as if she were talking to a small child. She sang along to the song, putting her hand over Gary's mouth whenever he tried to say something.

"This song is soooo romantic." Leaf cooed. "Bet you're never like that to your girlfriends."

"You'll have to be to find that out." Gary said, firing a quick wink at Leaf then concentrating his attention on the road in front of him again. Since Gary bought the car, he had not driven out of Pallet Town.

Leaf pouted and continued to listen to each song for a minute then skipping it. Gary groaned. The next few hours were going to be long, tedious but a great memory one day. Just not today.

Xxx

Getting to Vermilion took longer than expected. Gary made sure to drive slowly so that he could take charge of his iPod too, leaving Leaf to sulk in her seat and only to get things her way again. It became a cyclical process: Leaf skipped songs, Gary got annoyed and took charge of the iPod and Leaf sulked and so on and so forth.

He pulled his car by the extravagant seventeenth century country house.

"So we just go in and interrogate her?" Leaf asked as she unfastened her seatbelt and turned to face Gary who was fixing the spikes on his head.

"No way. She'll never tell us anything with an approach like that. We need to be smooth and I've-"

Leaf interrupted him. "You've got a 'sure fire plan that will get us what we need.'" Leaf quoted. "Last time I heard those words we ended up in detention for three weeks."

"Ah, but this isn't school related, is it Leaf?" Gary pointed out.

"So? It just means when you're 'sure fire' plan goes wrong we'll end up in jail." Leaf pointed out bluntly.

"Trust me. It'll work perfectly… If you notice the 'go' sign this time." Gary said, reminding her of why they ended up in detention.

"I'll notice it if you give it." Leaf fired back. She genuinely believed she was not the one to blame for their pre-April fool's day festivities.

"Maybe you should ju-" Leaf interrupted Gary again and pointed to the drive way.

Gary looked over too, and noticed someone he did not factor into his plan. Professor Oak. He ordered Leaf to duck but it was too late. The professor had spotted them.

Xxxx

"And because you were gone for so long, we got worried about you and that's why we came." Leaf lied flawlessly like always, even convincing herself that that was the truth in the process of her explanation.

"Oh, you're so cute Leaf; just like how I remembered you to be." Professor Ivy said, her face was absent of a smile, making Leaf wonder if she was being serious or not.

Professor Ivy was known as someone who was hard to read. Even Leaf, and her usually accurate reading of people from their hand gestures and facial expression, found it hard to tell what the woman was thinking. But if Leaf believed her own lie, the outcome will almost always unravel as how Leaf would want it to.

Leaf looked at Ivy and smiled an innocent smile, trying to portray to the woman that she has no ulterior motives. Even someone as good with words as her didn't know what to say back.

Gary remained silent since they were spotted by the Professors, only speaking when spoken to and even then no more than a word or two at a time. He let Leaf work her magic and sat back, silently analysing the professor. Or at least try to. The woman's face conveyed nothing. Sometimes trying to read Ivy was like trying to understand what a brick is trying to say. Only harder.

"Anyway, since you are all here and it's getting late, I'll assume that you will all be staying here for the night." Ivy said, not sounding particularly pleased about the uninvited guests.

"Actually, we were planning on heading back to Pallet Town." Gary said, looking at Leaf who nodded in agreement.

"Gary, it's dangerous to drive at night, especially for a new driver like you." Professor Oak said, "We can all leave tomorrow morning."

Xxxxxx

Dinner was unnervingly quiet. The four people that were in the country house didn't speak to each other. The sounds of the cutlery hitting the crockery followed by the chair scraping back were the only sounds that resonated in the dining room.

Leaf and Gary both eyed the room, and the people in it, several times as they ate their roast beef and potatoes and once Gary rose from his seat, Leaf followed suit.

"That was slightly awkward." Leaf stated once they made it back to Gary's room. He shut the door behind her, letting them speak freely.

Gary nodded and picked up Leaf's bag. "Did you bring it?" he asked her. She nodded and Gary proceeded to unzip her bag pulling out a lot of paper and scrambling it on the bed then pulling out what he was really after: a bit of paper that had been folded up on itself a dozen times or so. He unfolded it. "Perfect."

Gary grabbed a few more things and shoved them into his pockets. Sneaking around the country house was going to be hard and even with the map of the house that he had ordered Leaf to bring; it was still going to be a tough task.

"And Leaf?" Gary said, catching the attention of the brunette, "That was some quick thinking back in the car." He complimented, referring to the moment when they were spotted by the professors in Gary's car. It took Leaf less than three minutes to formulate a lie in her head.

"Of course, but I must say, you caught on pretty quickly." Leaf complimented back as she too dug round in her bag for a few things that she thought might come in handy for their trawl round the house.

"I am Gary, aren't I?" he asked modestly as he stood up beside Leaf and waited for her before they started their mission. Leaf mock punched Gary's arm stood up beside him.

Gary unfolded the map and tried to understand it. The house was huge and working out where his room is was not easy but he managed it. Leaf and Gary tried to work out what was the best route to take to go to where they think the lab would be without encountering anyone in the house. Though there were only two other people, avoiding them was easier said than done. They had a few disagreements in the process, starting with which way to go when they leave the room.

"Okay, you go your way and I'll go mine." Leaf said, "whoever gets to the lab first should text the other person. And we'll need an alibi should we caught."

Gary nodded. Leaf had everything thought up in the event they got caught but he knew right there and then that Leaf was never going to make it to the lab. As cunning as she is, Gary knew from a few separate occasions that Leaf couldn't read maps.

"What's our alibi?" Gary asked.

"Wear a lost look on your face and tell anyone you see you're looking for the garden. After the lab raid we should meet in the garden, just in case one of us needed to use the alibi." Leaf suggested. "And if we can't find the way to the lab by eleven just meet at the garden."

"Okay." Gary agreed though he doesn't always understand Leaf's reason for making things so complicated for him.

xxxxxx

Leaf left the room second and walked in the opposite direction to Gary. She had a map discretely hidden in her belt and had memorised the first part of her route which she had split into four separate parts.

If only Leaf could differentiate a window from a door on a map…

Xxxxxx

Gary had successfully wondered down to the bottom floor. He had established that the lab was situated in the basement like his grandfather's one at home. But unlike his home, Professor Ivy's country house had the stairway to the basement hidden somewhere, away from the main stairs.

He took in the décor of the house as he moved, trying to use it to help him retrace his steps if necessary, but it was harder than it sounds since Ivy displayed no photos or paintings on the walls – they were as bare as a desert. The evenly spaced apart doors didn't help either.

Just faintly, he could hear the sound of people talking round the corner. He always remembers that distinct tone ivy uses when she's talking about very serious matters.

He heard a second voice. His grandfather's voice. Gary leaned against the nearest wall and listened to Ivy and his grandfather's conversation.

"But you won't." professor Oak said sternly to Ivy. Gary could picture his face as he spoke. He wasn't sure what his gramps was talking about but he had a burning feeling that it was something he needed to know.

"I'm not in on the project anymore. I can say what I want to who I want." Professor ivy said in her cool tone. She was never the one to be intimidated by people who had authority over her. "But if it means so much to you, I won't mention it."

"Thank you Ivy. That's all I needed to hear." professor Oak said gratefully," I think I'll be heading back to Pallet Town now."

"So soon?" Ivy said, though she didn't sound the slightest bit disappointed.

The professor nodded. "I have a lot of business to attend to back home."

As soon as Gary heard that he decided that the lab was going to be a no go for now. He needed to come up with a plan and fast. Gary looked around the hall hastily. He thought about diving into one of the rooms but decided against it. Maybe Leaf's advice earlier is a better idea...

He took a deep breath and walked round the corner casually. He was going to do exactly what Leaf said he should, minus the lost look though. Admitting he was lost would cost him his pride, as his family and friends knew all too well.

When he had turned the corner, Professor Ivy and Professor Oak were both gone.

Xxxxxx

Leaf had long given up looking for the lab and had stumbled across yet another corridor lined with old wooden doors. She popped her head into each room, but only fully entering one. The one she did wander into was clearly Ivy's. It was the room (out of all the ones Leaf had seen) that has photos and other trinkets that held some sort of sentiment.

She quietly shut the door behind her and crept further into the room, investigating the mess of books and folders that was scattered all over the floor. It somehow resembled Leaf's room back home. At least she thought so.

Looking around here was going to take time. All Leaf could do was skim through every page and hope Professor Ivy doesn't find her snooping.

Xxxxxx

It was almost eleven, the designated meet up time with Leaf at the garden. He knew he had to head out to the garden soon, somewhere he did know how to get to even without the map, but a voice inside his head kept telling him to move forward and don't turn back. The instinctive thing for him to do was to keep going.

Gary could see the slowest staircase down to the basement and according to his map, the lab was just down those fifteen or so steps.

However nothing ever runs smoothly. He could hear footsteps coming up the stairs. Judging from the sound of the footsteps against the wooden flooring, Gary could tell that they belonged to a woman.

Xxxxx

Leaf made herself comfy on the clean-cut grass. She sat with her knees tucked up in front of her chest and che checked her watch. 11:05. Gary was five minutes late, though that didn't matter. Knowing Gary, he probably didn't start to make his way to the garden until eleven on the dot. Maybe even after eleven.

Leaf took the sounds of nature in and let it sooth her. The stars above were shining brightly and they seemed much more abundant than what could be seen at this time of nigh back at home. Now she finally understood why pensioners choose to move to the countryside to grow old with their spouse. It made her wonder at times what her future husband and family would be like. Would she be able to move out into such a lavish home and just relax all day?

"Hey, sorry I'm late." Gary said from behind as he lightly jogged up to her on the grass and settled down beside her. Leaf thought it was unusual for Gary to apologise.

"I knew you would be." Leaf said, not bothering to turn round. "If I got a penny for every time you're late, I'd be rich."

"Hurtful. Leaf." he said with a laugh.

"Find anything?" she asked him.

Gary didn't answer right away. "Let's enjoy our time out here and talk about it later." He finally replied.

"Why?" Leaf asked suspiciously, whipping her head round to look at Gary. She didn't realize how closely Gary was sitting, not that she minded when people invaded her personal space. But what really confused her was when his face seemed to get closer, and closer and-

Before she could say anything else Gary's face was as close to Leaf's as it could get. Lips over lips.

Xxxxxx

… Eh soooo, the Gary and Leaf kiss… Was it real? Why now? Did Leaf like it? I shall reveal the answers to these questions and a lot of other things with other people in the next chapter.

And yeah, the song I made Leaf and Gary listen to in the car is called 'The Man Who Can't be Moved' by The Script. The reason for the song being in the story is… Well, I love it and I listened to it over and over again while I was writing this :D kinda like my inspiration!

Anyway, hope this chapter will suffice for now! Review like always, please!


	16. Chasing the Light

Emmm, soooo… Just a quick correction note for last chapter: I typed Viridian instead of Vermillion like five times but luckily none of you guys noticed… Great investigative skills guys… I'll fix that soon but for now, here's the next chapter.

Chapter 15: Chasing the Light

Leaf was in shock. She remembered talking to Gary, then he moved in and after a few heavenly seconds, he moved back and the words 'I think she's gone now' were whispered, right in front of her lips. And it was when Leaf heard those words that she realised what had happened. They were being watched. Were but presumably not anymore.

"I-I was thinking that's… Not part of the plan." Leaf said with a light stutter. She took a peek at Gary, who didn't seem to notice her stutter, or if he did, he didn't showing it.

"I know but Ivy was watching." Gary explained, moving away from Leaf slightly and sitting like how he was before he kissed her. "She looked like she was suspicious of our investigation and why you were here."

"See, I told you there wasn't a need for me to come!" Leaf said, waving her hands about to emphasise her point. "I could've been eating your food and snooping about in your gramps lab and…"

"So I told her we're dating." Gary casually slipped in as Leaf's rant went on full force, though, his statement didn't escape her warm, pink ears.

"And I- wait, what did you just say?" Leaf asked, her eyes snapping wide open as she looked at Gary incredulously. He had already risen to his feet and was prepared to make a speedy escape away from Leaf. "Gary Oak! You get back here!"

Gary managed to lead Leaf back to her room with little problems. But he came to an abrupt halt as he turned the corner to the hall where his room was. Leaf ran the corner and slammed right into his solid, muscular back and stumbled back. Rubbing her nose, Leaf stepped forward and stood alongside Gary, observing the peculiar site in front of them.

Gary and Leaf looked at each other, a confused yet curious expression dominating their faces. They continued to watch as a shadow casted itself into the hall from the room and within moments, Ivy emerged into the hall. He looked at Leaf again and knew in an instant that she was thinking the same thing as him; what if Ivy went into his bag and read some of his investigation details?

Leaf gave Gary a nudge.

"What's going on?" Gary asked, taking Leaf's subtle hint.

"I was just checking the heaters in the room." Ivy replied, though Leaf and Gary didn't buy her answer.

Gary watched Ivy retreat round the corner and after she had disappeared for a few seconds round the corner, presumably out of ear shot. "She's onto us."

"Doesn't take a genius to figure that one out." Leaf replied as she went into her room.

Gary followed behind her. "What's the plan now?" he asked.

"What makes you think I have a plan?" Leaf asked as she shut the door once Gary was in the room too.

"You're the one who said, and I quote, 'great people always have a plan.'" Gary said, imitating Leaf as he quoted her.

The corner of Leaf's lips turned upwards. "Are you admitting that I'm a great person?" Leaf asked mischievously.

"Maybe, though that's nothing compared to the amazing person I am." Gary said cockily.

Leaf stuck her tongue out at Gary in a childish manner and he laughed. Her childishness was cute.

"Loser." Leaf said, making sure Gary heard her.

* * *

The door opened to the surprisingly immaculate lab. The scientific books were stacked up chronologically on the over desk shelves; all glassware was cleaned and put in their appropriately labelled areas on the bench and there was a stack of paper that sat on the most eye-catching area of the desk.

"This was your plan?" Gary asked. He never thought Leaf would be the type to do something as simple as just walking in.

"You asked for a plan and I gave you one." Leaf replied with a shrug.

She approached the papers with caution, not sure what to expect. Did Ivy purposely leave the papers out for them to find? Or were they something else that didn't concern them? Always being a person that was curious of everything around her, Leaf scanned the top of the sheet. She read the first three words then signalled Gary over hastily.

Without saying anything, his eyes darted over to what Leaf was holding. It was a letter aimed at them.

_Gary and Leaf_

_I know why you are here and so does your grandfather. He has made me swear not to tell you anything and I am a woman of my word. As I result, I can't tell you anything. So I've prepared some information that may be of use to you._

_Ivy._

Gary and Leaf looked at each other. The search was shorter than they thought. But they wondered if the information she provided consisted of anything new.

* * *

The doctor flicked through the pages of the document that he held. Breaking the news was always hard work, but it could be worse. He could be saying that the patient may never recover from her state.

"So, Mr and Mrs Maple, I'm going to be straight forward here." The doctor started. Beating around the bush was probably going to do him no favours so he may as well be more direct. "May's recovery was great when she first got here but over the past few days her recovery has, well, ceased."

Caroline gasped on impulse, an action often done when she heard what she didn't want. Norman put an arm around her and tried to console his sobbing wife.

"Is there any way to kick start her recovery again?" Norman asked.

"It's hard to say, I mean, each patient is different. She might be restarting her recovery progress as we speak." He said hopefully, though he didn't sound convinced himself.

* * *

Drew sat with his laptop on his lap, reading classified information about Kanto citizens, curtsey of his parents. There was something that didn't make sense to him, something that both Gary and Leaf seemed to take lightly but he thought was bizarre. Eye colours just don't change like that. Why his two friends dismissed a point as important as that dazzled him.

He looked over to May for a second. She was now asleep. It was weird watching her peaceful face; it was such a contrast to her usual annoyed expression whenever he was around her. When she wasn't frowning, Drew had the opportunity to really see her clearly; her smooth skin, shiny sapphire eyes (though they were shut) and cute dimples that she tried to hide whenever she smiled.

The soft click of the door being opened drew his attention from May's peaceful form. It was Caroline, May's mother. She must've finished her meeting with the psychiatrist and judging from her expression, things didn't look like they were going well.

"What did the doctor say?" Drew asked her quietly as she slipped into the room. He stood up and allowed Mrs Maple to sit on the seat.

She accepted his kind gesture and shook her head. "She's not making any progress."

Drew remained silent. He wanted to say something to comfort her but that wasn't his type of thing to do and he wouldn't know what to say if he did decide to speak.

"It could be worse." Norman said as he came into the silent room. He held up the papers for Drew and Caroline to see.

Drew's eyes widened quickly then averted back to normal when his brain registered the information. He pulled out his phone and got texting.

* * *

Her eyes were dry, heavy and bloodshot from the lack of sleep and from the amount for reading she had done in the dim lighting of the room. From what Leaf had read so far, she hadn't really learnt anything new. She looked over to Gary, who had his head too close to the paper to still be reading. Leaf rolled her eyes and shoved her friend's head, causing the boy's face to smack the thick pile of sheets.

"Is it possible for someone to read something with their face that close to the words?" Leaf asked rhetorically. She stretched out her back and sat upright.

"Well, I was testing it but I guess we won't know now." Gary said with a yawn. "And let's not shove my head again. It ruins my hair."

Leaf snorted. "You ruined it from your intense close reading." Gary threw her a look and got up and went into the bathroom to check his hair. "Did you find anything before you fell asleep?" she asked.

"I didn't sleep and yes, I did. Kind of." Gary said as he re-emerged from the bathroom and sat down, rubbing his eyes. "But I want to see if we can maybe coax something out of that woman, even if we have to do it through an actual civilised conversation. And what times is it?"

Leaf stretched across the bed and reached for Gary's phone on the bedside table. She read out the illuminated digits on the screen. "Eight. And you have a text from one of your girlfriends." She said and then retreated back onto her spot on the corner of the bed.

"Which one?"

Leaf groaned and stretched over again. "It's from your girlfriend… Drew."

Gary looked confused and ignored Leaf's comment. He thought that his green haired friend must've found something new. "What did he say?"

Leaf unlocked Gary's phone and opened the text. "Something must have happened. He's asking us if we've read the news lately."

"If he's asking something must've happened." Gary guessed as he typed a quick reply then tucked his phone into his jean pocket. "Let's head down to breakfast and have a chat with Ivy."

* * *

They entered the dining area, the same place that was filled with an uncomfortable silence during dinner the night before. The table had been set for three individuals but there was no food, only the aroma of food that drifted in from the room next door. It smelt like fresh eggs mixed with bacon.

The newspapers sat neatly on the end of the table that was absent of the place mats and cutlery. Gary picked it up and unfolded it then proceeded to sit down.

Leaf took a seat next to him. The last thing she wanted was to sit next to Ivy. She made her feel uneasy. She leant towards Gary, trying to read the headlines too.

_Another victim in Pallet Murder Rampage_

Leaf took her gaze off the paper and looked at Gary, who was one step ahead.

"This must be what Drew was referring to." Gary said as he looked back at the papers and skimmed the article. His mouth moved, mouthing each word as he read it.

Leaf read it too, and was shocked to see that the latest victim was yet another person that she knew, albeit not very well, but an acquaintance nonetheless. Violet Waterflower. The beautiful, athletic older sister of Misty, one of Leaf's closest friend. But that wasn't the only weird thing. The time of death was said to be less than a day after that of Johanna Berlitz's death, maybe even less. The attacks were becoming more frequent.

"Good morning." Ivy said as she carried out plates of food to the table.

Gary closed the papers over and folded it then placed it back onto the table exactly where he found it. He greeted a simple "Good morning" back poured himself a glass of milk, offering to do the same for Ivy and Leaf too.

"I hope your trip has been eventful." Ivy said as she took her seat across from Gary. Ivy had a preference to keep the head of the table clear and her statements rather ambiguous.

"It will be after breakfast, we're hoping anyway." Gary said in a tone that expressed his need for his aunt's co-operation in the least desperate way possible.

"I've been sworn into secrecy." Ivy said bluntly.

Gary looked at Leaf. When the straight forward approach from the good cop fails, it's time to call in the bad cop, or in this case, the ever scheming Leaf. She nodded.

"Let's play a game. We fire a series of questions or answers and Ivy can only answer yes or no." Leaf suggested. The yes/ no approach had never not worked.

"Okay." Ivy agreed. She had to admit that it was pretty smart. She would reveal things without actually saying anything, a loophole in the promise she made with Professor Oak.

"First question: the project is less than two feet tall." Gary said.

Leaf gave him a look. To Leaf, the question seemed slightly out of the blue, a bit like the kiss last night… But maybe the question meant something?

"Hmmm… Yes." Ivy answered uncertainly.

"The project involved the transplant of the car crash victim named Alexander Courtez." Gary said.

Ivy thought about that one. "This is where things start to get complicated. I have to say, I'm surprised you know about him."

Leaf and Gary looked at each other, their expressions were the same. If they managed to find out about his guy, then most of their investigation must've been right so far.

"So is that a yes?" Leaf asked.

Ivy's cool expression contorted slightly, trying to think how she should answer that. "It is, I guess. But there's more to it than that. Why are you two so interested in this anyway?"

Leaf looked at Gary and sent him a look that indicated she wasn't going to be the one to explain things.

"I don't know if you've heard about this." Gary said and passed the newspapers over to Ivy, who read the headlines.

"I'm familiar with it."

"And I don't suppose you happen to know about the robbery at gramp's lab?" Gary asked.

"Again, I'm familiar with it."

"Don't you find it peculiar that the day after the secret project was stolen that the first attempted murder occurred?" Gary asked, provoking Ivy's brain and Leaf's in the process.

Leaf looked at Gary. She hadn't pieced as much of this together as him, and judging by the confidence he spoke with, she knew right away that he knew a lot more than she did, or at least have more theories stored in that head of his.

"I've heard about them but I've not really paid much attention to the dates of each event." Ivy admitted.

"And the thing that I find the strangest of all is that Leaf was sent a present that happened to be less than two feet tall the morning after the lab was robbed." Gary said, ignoring his aunt's comment.

Leaf thought about what Gary had thrown out. She felt stupid. How did she not see that accusation coming? Gary had even written that down on a bit of paper somewhere. But hearing him saying it so confidently made Leaf a hundred per cent convinced that his theory was right. Or at least where he was going with this was sure to be right.

"Every victim died from blood loss. Their carotid artery was sliced open in every case. I thought I had most of this worked out until this morning." Gary said. He reached out for the set of newspapers that Ivy had placed onto the table. "It says the latest victim, Violet Waterflower, died on the same night as Johanna Berlitz which is impossible since the doll was in our possession by that evening."

The three people round the table let the words sink in before any of them spoke.

Ivy sighed a frustrated sigh and slammed her hands on the table, causing it shake. "I'm going to break my promise this one time."

Leaf and Gary looked at each other. Was that all it took to make Ivy crack? If she meant what she said then they knew that once Ivy had announced that, a lot of things were going to be cleared up.

* * *

I had so much trouble writing this since it had to fit into what I already wrote in previous chapters and I had to constantly remind myself about what's going to come in the next. This chapter took a lot longer to write than I thought it would but nonetheless, I hope you guys enjoyed it!

Just drop a wee review and I'll post the next chapter up soon! I've made a start on it already!

Have nive day or night,

silver-hedgehog


	17. More Loose Ends

So, it's been a while since I updated this (the gap is a bit too long for my liking…) but here's a little post Halloween update!

Chapter 16: More Loose Ends

Gary and Leaf watched Ivy intently as they waited for her to spill words, words they needed to hear. Ivy's usual cool and collected demeanour had vanished in a blink of an eye, now she looked panicked. No wonder why the woman never went back on a promise.

"Okay, let's start by telling me everything you two know." Ivy said once she had calmed down. She put cutlery down with a clatter and laid her arms on the table in a professional manner.

"Well, what we think so far is that the stolen project is the doll. The doll is responsible for the killing spree back home. The organ, which is a brain, might've come from car crash victim Alexander Courtez, a charitable surgeon. But at the scene of the crime, the other crash victim, George Little, strangely enough died from an incision across his neck and this is where you come in." Gary summed up.

Ivy nodded her head. She was amazed that a few teens managed to find all that out. Her mind weighed the pros and cons of helping them. If she helped them, she could be saving a peaceful little town from further jeopardy but if she didn't help them another dozen of people could be dead by next week. Clearly, there were only pros and no cons in helping them.

"I know you worked as a crime scene investigator for the crash since there were so many elements that didn't make it look like an ordinary car crash." Gary prompted when Ivy remained silent.

"I did indeed and I have to say, to this day, we've never been able to say for sure what happened." Ivy said. "We'll talk about this in my lab after breakfast." Ivy said then tucked into her chilling poached eggs.

Looks like Daisy was going to have to wait.

* * *

All eyes were glued to the monitor as images were flashed on them, images that they would otherwise never see without Ivy pulling a few strings. The images were gruesome and gory, bloody and, in general, disturbing to look at as Leaf and Gary's faces showed whenever Ivy clicked onto the next photo. At least they showed for about the first three seconds before their faces became non-distorted again. Seeing angry open wounds, messy blood splutters and limbs that looked painfully bent in the wrong direction was not what Gary and Leaf had in mind straight after breakfast.

Ivy had dug out the files containing results from all the tests carried out from the scene of the crash, prepared to read out all that appeared out of place.

"That was disturbing, even for us, and we have to put up with Lt. Surge's muddy, fly infested boots practically in our face every morning." Leaf said on behalf of Gary and herself once they had viewed the slideshow of photos. She hated that the man made her and Gary sit at the front.

Gary shuddered at the thought of the lieutenant. He was one guy that really needed to use the fine creation called a shower. And soap. He pushed the thought out of his head for now and tried to focus on getting as many clues as he could now. He and Leaf had an extremely tight schedule if they wanted to question Ivy, check up on Daisy and make it home without Professor Oak suspecting anything, though the latter should be the least of their concern.

"Test results showed that neither party were on drugs, drink, nor had their vehicles tampered with yet at the scene, all the glass in Alexander Courtez's car was fully intact while the glass windows of George Little's car had been smashed inwards." Ivy said as she scanned her document for key information.

"Inwards?" Leaf repeated. She looked at Gary, who gave her a mirrored look back. "I thought they crashed into each other and not into objects that smashed their windows?"

"Is it just me who thinks that the crash didn't look at all fatal?" Gary asked. He was partially sitting on Ivy's writing table as he flicked through some of the photos again. The drivers weren't even thrown out of their seats nor had any head injuries – the air bag didn't even inflate and Gary was certain that both those cars had built in air bags. Every car made in the past ten years had to have an air bag, as Gary had found while he was looking to buy a car and the cars in question were certainly less than five years old.

"That's exactly what I thought when I dealt with this case." Ivy said. "If the crash really had a lot of force behind it, there would be at least some cracks on Courtez's window too."

"How did Courtez die?" Leaf asked, uncertain as to whether that question was a stupid or not. To her, there was no obvious cause to his death. It was clear that Little had died from blood loss from the neck wound.

"Post mortem results showed that there was nothing wrong with his organs, no extreme blood loss or pathogenic infections of any kind." Ivy said.

"So he died of an unknown cause?" Gary asked, keeping his eyes on the monitor. He inspected every photo closely. "And how did Little get that nasty looking cut?" he asked, referring to the neck wound that was on the monitor.

"It would seem so." Ivy said as she snapped the file shut. "And nobody knows. There was no evidence that the crash scene had been tampered with even though that would be the only explanation."

The room became silent as they let the information sink in. Leaf wasn't sure if it was just her or if Gary felt it too but she was just as, if not more, confused than before they had this conversation with Ivy. She felt as if she was told to find answers to more questions rather than having the ones she had to ask answered.

"Then what about the whole ordeal with Violet Waterflower? The doll was at my house, sitting on the desk in Leaf's room at the estimated time of death." Gary said, raising a vital point.

Ivy straightened up. "You study science, figure it out yourselves. What must every experiment have?"

Leaf and Gary thought for a moment.

"A duplicate!" Leaf chipped enthusiastically.

"Exactly. There was a duplicate experiment going on in your grandpa's secondary lab in Pallet Town." Ivy confirmed. "And that project too had been stolen." Ivy said. Now that the woman had revealed that, it seemed obvious that there had been two dolls behind the crimes the whole time.

"Gramps had a second lab?" Gary asked, beating Leaf to it. This was news to him. "And why wasn't the robbery of that lab on the news?"

"The secondary lab is a secret as was the duplicate doll." Ivy said.

"Whose organ went into that one?" Leaf asked.

Ivy shrugged. "I wasn't in charge of that one so I don't know but I know someone who does know." Ivy said and wrote down a contact on a bit of paper and handed it to Gary who gave it a quick read then pocketed it. "You didn't get the contact from me." Ivy was quick to add.

Leaf and Gary both nodded under Ivy's icy glare which didn't fade until they promised.

* * *

Gary and Leaf sat in the red car outside Ivy's country house. Leaf pulled her seatbelt over her shoulder and into the socket, preparing for the trip to Cerulean City. Gary did so too, and plunged his key into the ignition but he didn't start the engine.

"Totally did not see the second doll coming." Leaf said, her mind still blown from that second revelation that Ivy had made.

Gary nodded. He sat coolly with one arm over the top of the steering wheel. "I know what you mean. That answers a lot. It would explain why you saw blue eyes when you first got the doll and I saw green, it would explain how Violet died so soon after Johanna and it could explain one more thing."

"What?" Leaf asked and looked at Gary curiously.

"Why there were no traces left at the crash scene." Gary said with his gaze fixed on the steering wheel.

"Are you implying that doll number two was made first?"

"If doll number two is the doll from the secondary lab then yes."

Leaf and Gary looked at each other and sat in silence, contemplating the possibility that what Gary said was true. With all the things that they had managed to uncover of past few days, if that really was the truth, they would not be surprised.

After sitting for what seemed like a long enough time to let the thought sink in, Gary started up his car and left Ivy's country house behind as they set off to find Daisy.

* * *

It was almost afternoon when Gary's car pulled into the busy city of Vermillion. It took them longer than anticipated since Leaf and Gary had barely touched their breakfast back at Ivy's and therefore had to stop for brunch at a small roadside café. The stop was brief and provided them with barely enough time to order their food and eat it before they we're back on the repetitive road.

They had been driving for almost four hours and Leaf was starting to get restless sitting in the car. She had read over all their clues and facts and tried to piece together the whole picture but to no avail. Most of what could be pieced together had already been done so before they started the seemingly endless road trip. Several twists and turns through the city later, they managed to navigate their way out of the city centre and towards their destination.

"Think Bill's place should be down this road somewhere." Gary said as he squinted to see the tiny house names that were pinned next to the doors of the rows of houses.

"Good. Your driving's awful." Leaf said, feeling slightly sick from sitting in the moving vehicle and reading simultaneously.

"At least I have my license." Gary said then pulled the car over to the house that he assumed to be Bill's.

"Is that his house?" Leaf asked. She read the name on the wooden tag.

"Should be. Got a plan?"

Leaf sat for a moment then replied. "I was just thinking we should go up and knock on the door. Do you want me to think of a plan?" Leaf asked.

Gary stared at Leaf. It wasn't like her to take the straight forward approach without a good reason. He looked at the driveway and noticed that Bill's canary yellow car was sitting in the driveway, indicating that Bill was likely to be in. Leaf must've realised that too. She knew what kind of car Bill drove and with her constantly scheming mind, it was unlikely that something that could be used to their advantage be forgotten so easily.

"No, I'll just role with what you have in mind." Gary said, putting his trust on Leaf yet again.

"If you say so." Leaf said then opened the car door and stretched her legs before standing up.

Gary followed suite and locked the doors. He made his way to Leaf's side of the car and stood on the pavement beside her. "So we just walk up to the door and knock…?"

"That's generally how it works." Leaf said with a shrug.

Gary gave Leaf a gentle shove and walked forward down the cobble tone path then onto the eerily neat front porch. Leaf followed behind him and knocked on the door since Gary showed no signs that he was going to do it.

A few seconds after the first knock and they received no reply. Leaf knocked again and the pair waited again. This time they heard movement from the other side of the door and after a long wait, the door opened slowly.

* * *

So, that's the end of this chapter. That's a few of the questions that I've received via reviews and stuff answered but I think I'm probably going to complicate things again pretty soon. I'll need to make sure my new idea fits in with my existing ones first though.

Oh, and before you lovely people review, which of course I know you will (teehee), I remember saying that I'll finish this story this year (in my profile somewhere) but I don't think that's going to happen… Oh well!

But anyway, hope you liked this one and thanks for reading!

~silver-hedgehog


	18. Home

A new chapter! Yes, I'm still writing this since I started it in like 2009! Geezo, I'm so slow! Anyway, I'll shut up and let you read. Hope like this chapter!

_Italics = article_

Chapter 17: Home

The car came to gradual halt outside the old town house. Gary turned off the engine but left his keys in the ignition. He had a weird churning in his stomach. What if Bill was lying and Daisy never actually left his place but actually locked up in some room in that house of his somewhere? He was suspiciously adamant about not letting Gary or Leaf in after all. For Leaf that just contributed to the growing and seemingly endless list of why Bill is not good enough for Daisy. And why he's a creep.

Gary let out a long, hard sigh. "Do you thing Bill was lying?" he asked, keeping his gaze on the front door of his house.

They had driven back to Pallet Town after Bill had denied their entry into his home several times and Leaf had drawn a blank – she even used the infamous puppy eyes and still nothing.

"Honestly, yes." Leaf said. "He was so… so determined not to let us in. He's definitely hiding something." Either that or Bill was naturally even more odd than the teens had originally thought.

Leaf's reply came as no surprise to Gary. "What if she's not inside?" Gary asked, referring to his home.

Leaf didn't know what to say to that but luckily she didn't need to think of a reply. They watched as the front door opened and revealed the well styled brunette in question. She was smiling brightly and used the door frame as a prop while she posed for the teens, causing them to crack up laughing. After a tense previous night, it was definitely what they needed.

Xxxxxxxx

"You have no idea how worried we were." Leaf said, "I'm not going to sugar coat this but we thought Bill had looked you up somewhere in his house and was holding you captive in a cold, dark, rat infested basement or something along the lines of that!"

Daisy took a sip of her lukewarm tea and chuckled in response. She had made her brother and Leaf tea too which neither of them had touched. The same could not be said about the custard creams on the plate though; they were almost completely gone before the plate even reached the table.

"No way, Bill would never do that to me!" Daisy said. "He even gave me some information." She added as with a devious smirk.

Gary's eyes were fixed on his sister. This was what caused all the stress and made them miss their trip to the secret sister lab. Gary thought about what kind of information Bill may have supplied them with – for what their missing it better be useful. Was the information even going to be genuine? He hoped so but somehow, Gary had his doubts as did Leaf.

"What did he sa-" Gary started but was interrupted by Leaf.

"Wait. He caught you looking at his files and didn't threaten to arrest you?" Leaf asked. She found it odd that Daisy had not mentioned that Bill had threatened to get her arrested for peeking at highly confidential files when he had pulled out his phone earlier and started to dial for emergency services when Leaf had her little toe still on his driveway. Apparently according to Kanto law, that still counted as trespassing.

"No, actually, I'll tell you what happened."

**Daisy's flashback (from chapter 14: Daisy? Also, it's Daisy's POV since she's telling the story)**

I had spent a good hour or so waiting for Bill to fall into a deep sleep before I snuck out of the bedroom and into the study across the hall. I knew that Bill always left his computer on so getting into it wasn't a problem and when I brought up one of the minimised windows; I noticed that it happened to be conveniently on the page with the list of all the donor names.

It seemed a bit suspicious that it just happened to be open on that page but I went with it and searched the files of the two guys Gary needed details on easily enough and pretty much as soon as I was done sending the files, Bill came into the room.

"Bill, I thought you were asleep." I said, trying to act natural which was difficult when you know you've just violated the law.

"I was but then I rolled over and thought I'd squashed you but you weren't even there!" he said. "What are you doing on my computer?" he asked, taking a slow steps towards me.

"I couldn't sleep so I was going to see if my brother was online, you know, it's just him and his girlfriend. Just wanted to check up on them." I said slyly. "But he's not online, which I should've guessed." She pulled a fake unimpressed look. "I'll just log out and we can go back to bed."

Then we went back to sleep and I thought I got away with it and I would've if I had shut the files down after I'd looked at them.

**END FLASHBACK**

"But it didn't end that badly." Daisy said cheerfully. As she clasped her hands together as if something pleasant had just been presented to her.

"How so?" Gary asked her. He looked at her with a quizzical brow raised. "You got caught and could easily be done for it." His sister did confuse him sometimes.

Daisy gave her brother a look of innocence.

"What did he say?" Gary asked.

"He mentioned some guy called Henry." Daisy said.

"He actually said that to you voluntarily?" Leaf asked, she was surprised that Bill would just give out information so freely like that.

"It may've just slipped out. By accident."

Leaf and Gary looked at each other and nodded. "That makes more sense."

"But anyway, I tried to do some research into this guy but there are tonnes of people called Henry in Kanto so I didn't find anything out. But maybe you two will have better luck." Daisy said as she stretched her arms out and yawned loudly. "I'm knackered!" She exclaimed and got up from the sofa, leaving a small dip in the soft cushion.

"Daisy, can we backtrack in your story for one second?" Leaf asked.

Daisy stopped stretching and looked down to the brunette. "Yeah?"

"What did you say to Bill about me and Gary?"

Daisy smiled innocently back at her.

xxxxx

Gary and Leaf had settled down in the library with the fire place lit and a cosy blanket nearby. Leaf had the stacks of papers that they had compiled with information regarding the project on her lap while Gary laid back on the carpet directly in front of the fire place with one arm folded behind his head, resting on the cushions that they had taken from the nearby couch, while the other navigated his track pad on his laptop that was resting against his bent legs. The two teens had decided to go over everything that they had learnt so far.

Drew had sent several texts with information that he'd found and updates on May for him to pass on to Leaf. The information was detailed but not exactly what they were looking for.

"So when are we going to check the other lab out?" Leaf asked. She had gone over the information to herself several times before and every time she did, she seemed to pick out more and more problems than piece things together.

"Maybe tomorrow. I've just sent an email to that guy Ivy gave us the contact of and I've asked Drew to look up anyone who goes by the name of Henry in Kanto." Gary replied. "But Drew's not replied yet, not that I expect fast results from such a small team."

"I don't think working on your own to find someone constitutes as team work." Leaf pointed out.

"I'm looking too." Gary said then moved the laptop off his lap and sat up. "My eyes are starting to cross over from the tiny print." He said, referring to the list of Henry's that he was reviewing on his laptop.

Leaf picked up the laptop and typed something into it then let the total silence sink into the room. Her eyes were fixated on the article she was reading.

Gary picked up from where Leaf left off and read the page of information that they had learnt from Ivy on their recent trip. It was weird to see everything they know down on paper, especially when it was listed in such an order. Gary reached over to his side and grabbed the nearest pen and started to scribble some things down

"Hmm. I thought that might be the case." Leaf said as she signalled for Gary to give her his phone.

"What? Did you find something?" Gary asked.

Leaf handed Gary's phone back to him. "Maybe. I thought there might be an article or something about a Henry being in an accident and possibly died since Bill mentioned him."

"And you found something?"

"Well there are a few articles so I've sent Drew a text from your phone telling him to research someone." Leaf said then shifted over so that she sat closer to Gary. She pointed to the article on the screen. "This tells me that we might've found our guy."

_Vermillion Gang Leader Found Dead in Mansion_

_The leader of a notorious gang in Vermillion City has been found lying dead for over two days. The victim, Christopher Henry, aged 39 has died under suspicious circumstances, according to the forensic team that is in charge of the case._

"I had a feeling that Henry might've been a last name when Daisy mentioned it." Leaf said. "And look what it says. He's thirty-nine too."

Gary looked closely at the picture of man looked relatively young for his age, maybe early thirties at the latest and his bright blue eyes stood out but not nearly as much as his short blue hair. Two of the more unusual features on one person were rare to say the least.

"If you read on, it tells you that his gang was in an on-going feud with another gang, that coincidentally enough happens to be run by George Little." Leaf said.

"It has green eyes too." Gary said, suddenly thinking back to the photo of George Little that Daisy had sent them days before.

"What?"

"The doll, when you first showed me it, it had green eyes but you insisted they were blue. Either you're colour-blind or they were two different dolls with two different eye colours."

"I forgot about that. By the way, they were blue." Leaf said. "Where is my dolly anyway?"

"I saw a doll in my room earlier." Gary replied. "Quite sure it had green eyes."

"My doll has blue eyes, not green Gary." Leaf said disapprovingly as if it were a basic fact that Gary should know off the top of his head.

"Yeah and you insist that the eyes on the doll are blue."

"So?" Leaf asked.

"And George Little has green eyes while Henry has blue."

"Yeah?" Leaf confirmed uncertainly.

"And there are two projects, location of both is somewhere in Pallet, right?"

Leaf thought about where Gary was going with this. There are two people, who both have different eye colours that happen to be exactly the same as her doll's which seems to have two different eye colours… Unless there's more than one doll. "Are you saying what I think you're saying?"

Gary ignored Leaf's question and continued to scan their sheets of gathered information. He reached over for a pen and found the nearest bit of paper with enough space for him to draw a squint table with two columns. He filled up most of the table with his messy writing and then squinted at it when he was done.

Leaf watched him curiously as she tried to work out what her companion was up to. She knew not to speak when Gary was on to something. Breaking his concentration would be like breaking a possible lead and that was something they could not afford to do. She tried to read what Gay had scrawled down and when she had caught on to what he was trying to illustrate, she gasped and automatically drew her hand up to cover her mouth.

Gary looked at Leaf's face. What he wrote was definitely surprising to her.

"No way!" Leaf said as she snatched the paper out of Gary's hands. She was utterly stunned.

"I know. But it doesn't prove anything." Gary said as he laid back.

"But still, that's a weird coincidence, don't you think?"

"Maybe, but I'm not saying that it's a pattern until further investigation." Gary said, he took the sheet from Leaf and tucked it into the folder and stacked everything up on his side further away from Leaf. "We need to rest now. Tomorrow's going to be a long day if we want to get to the lab without gramps knowing."

Leaf nodded as her brain worked on a scheme to get passed the old man.

Xxxxxxx

Sooo, just thought I should make a note to say I hope you appreciate this cause it took me far too long to work out what chapter I was writing! My brain is like completely frazzled from writing down all the fine detail of the story! I swear, I can't even think straight just now!

All there's left to do now is to drop a wee review and make me a happy buni, ken? Then I shall reveal their latest finding that Leaf's gasping over in the next chapter!

*silver-hedgehog


	19. Behind the Iron Wrought Gates

Where's My Dolly?

Woo! So hi, I'm updating this cause I have finished my exams and am officially on my summer holiday now! Happy days!

Hope you enjoy this chapter.

Chapter 18: Behind the iron wrought gate

Leaf never thought she would see the day that she would be excited about something that is neither pleasurable nor relaxing. The plan for the day, as far as Professor Oak is concerned, is that Gary and Leaf are going to the library to do their school projects which would be true if Pallet Town had not been thrown into jeopardy only weeks ago and if the police were not so incompetent (though, their slip ups have been more beneficial than detrimental thus far).

The pair of brunets managed to rope Daisy into the plan too. She was going to make sure that the gramps abstained from calling or heading over to the other lab today. It was clear to Gary and Leaf after a while that Professor Oak had been to visit the other lab when they were informed that Professor Oak had returned only moments before they had the day before despite leaving Ivy's country home much sooner than they did. There was no doubt in their mind that he went to the lab and had already spoken to the professors there about their subsequent arrival. If what they have guessed so far really was true, they'll have a hard time getting information out and if they do, it will definitely get back to Professor Oak.

But Leaf had thought ahead. Kind of. She had played around with some ideas in her head regarding how to get the Professors to squeal but for her plan to work, the professors would have to have somewhat of a guilty conscience and judging from what they know they have been doing, she cannot say that they do.

If they fail that though, they will have to resort to her original plan, the one that she thought was the coolest anyway, after all, no story is a good story without a bit of theft, right?

"Here we are." Gary said as he and Leaf stopped outside a grand looking house that was certainly not built in this century or the last even. They had driven the car to the local library then parked it there and travelled the rest of the way by foot – according to Leaf, that made their story more believable.

"Wow. This place looks so… Sad_._" Leaf described in the best way possible as her eyes took in the iron gates that had been painted over in black not too long ago. The red-bricked walls were only partially visible in narrow strips between the untamed wall plants. The trees that stood tall around the house did an excellent job of concealing the majority of the house from the outside world, until you reach the gate, that is. The metal gate and the brick walls were nothing compared to the height of the house.

"Imagine coming here on Halloween." Gary commented. In his mind, he could picture this place being the house that every kid on the street is convinced is haunted by the old man who lives there but died without anyone knowing, a fitting scenario for the recent happenings in town. It would not faze them at all if that really was the case.

"This would've been the place that we'd try to sneak into, you know, if that wasn't already the plan." Leaf pointed out.

Gary nodded. She had a point there. He was itching to get inside and have a wee scope round the place. If the interior was anything like the exterior, it would make a great adventurous anecdote one day.

The pair continued forward and walked up the few creaky steps of the porch and stopped directly in front of the heavy looking brown doors; as if they were waiting for it to eerily open on its own.

Gary and Leaf have each other one last encouraging look then Leaf raised her arm and pressed on the cold doorbell once and listened to the melodic chimes of the bell.

Almost a minute had passed before they heard footsteps approach the door on the other side. There were a few clicks from the unlocking of the door and finally, the door itself opened a small crack, just enough to reveal a small part of a facial profile, a green pair of woman's eyes.

"Can I help you?"

"Hi, are you," Leaf took the piece of creased paper from Gary and squinted at the small and overly swirly handwriting, "Dr. Abby?"

The woman did not answer right away. "Who are you?" She finally replied as though it required a great deal of thinking.

Leaf made a mental note of the woman. She was being cautious, maybe they should too. She looked at Gary and tried to tell if he noticed too but it seemed not. He was clearly gazing into her mystifying green eyes; a pair of green eyes that looked exactly like they belonged to a cat; a pair that would belong to the black cat that people stayed away from in fear that it foreshadowed danger.

Leaf gave him a quick and subtle nudge in the ribs then put on a smile. "Can we have a chat?"

The woman thought for another while then opened the door wider to invite them in.

"Thanks." Leaf said as she entered the house and past the doctor into the run down looking wooden hallway.

"Sorry about the hall." The woman said when she noticed Leaf's expression towards the appearance of her hall. "We've been refurbishing the house."

"It's okay." Leaf said in return but she had to admit that the house did not look like it was being refurbished at all. It looked more like her own bedroom, like someone had been in here and trashed the place then left in a hurry.

"Why don't we go through to the living room." The woman suggested then gestured towards the first door on the right. "Take a seat and make yourselves comfortable." She said then put on a smile. "I'll go make us some tea."

Leaf watched her as she walked out of the living room through the back door of the old, country house styled room. She had to admit, when Ivy handed them the contact, she expected the scientists that this lab to be much older and less… _Attractive._ Dr Abby has the most stunning pink hair and she could not have been over twenty-five years of age, twenty-eight at the very most.

"Gary?" Leaf waved a hand in front of Gary's face, only to have it swotted away. He had not said a word since the door had opened and what was even more unusual was that he had not fed the woman any compliments on her beauty which is almost a given whenever he sees someone attractive, no matter how much of an age or league difference there is.

"What?" he asked.

"Just checking you're still with me?" Leaf studied his face as she spoke. Something was definitely up with him.

"I am." He replied.

"Good." Leaf made a mental note that she was going to be going solo today.

"Except for one problem."

"What?" Leaf asked. That was NOT part of the plan. She had factored in problems to appear later on.

"She's not Dr Abby." Leaf shot Gary a confused look and before she could ask him to elaborate, the woman appears through the door with a tray containing, three teacups with saucers and spoons, a milk jug, sugar and a teapot with a familiar looking tea cosy over it.

Leaf tried to remember where she had seen it before and it hit her. They were at a small arts and craft session one time when they were younger just before Valentine's day. All the kids were making tea cosies for their parents except for one person. Gary made that tea cosy. That means this must be…

"It's been a long time Gary." She says with a smile that lights up her whole face.

"It has, Anna, or should I say, Dr Anna." He replied though, the speech did not contain quite the same amount of friendliness behind it.

Leaf suddenly started to feel awkward. This certainly was not part of the plan. She felt like she had just walked in on two old flames having a reunion (which it essentially _is_ now) and that she should be anywhere but here.

If Leaf could recall correctly, Anna was Gary's first love, his future wife, as he's used to say when he was five and ignored the ten year age gap. But then she left Pallet when Gary was only eight and he had not seen her since. Well, at least he never mentioned her again.

While Leaf had drifted away in her thoughts, Gary and Anna had engaged in an awkwardly formed conversation.

"Then after I earned my doctorate title I came back here. To Pallet." She said as if they unsure as to where "here" is.

"Gramps never mentioned anything to me." Gary said as if he was trying to defend himself to clingy girlfriend who had just demanded why he did not call her last night.

"I've only seen him a few times since I moved back here. I work under Dr Abby and I'm based in this lab most of the time anyway so I don't usually get an opportunity to go to Professor Oak's lab."

Their conversation finished short and the room relapsed into a cold silence.

Leaf looked at both Gary and Anna's faces. "So you work under Dr Abby?" Leaf asked, trying to resurrect the conversation. "What's she like?"

"Dr Abby is such a genius." Anna replied without missing a beat. "She has such a creative mind, bringing together two impossibilities: human engineering and nature; dreams and reality; infancy and maturity. She just pushes all boundaries." Anna replied, bursting with enthusiasm.

"Is that so." Leaf said, her voice dripping with suspicion. "You see we actu-"

Leaf was interrupted by a sudden song being played. "Sorry." Gary said then answered his phone. "Hey, what's up Daisy? … Sure thing. See you soon."

"What's wrong?" Leaf asked once Gary had hung up. Professor Oak must have been on his way over or something if Gary was making them abandon the mission.

"Daisy needs help." Gary said. "So, we need to get going."

"Okay." Leaf replied then turned to Anna. "It was nice meeting you." She smiled politely at her.

"You too." She reciprocated then showed them out.

Only until they were outside and a fair distance away from the house did either one of them feel safe to say anything.

"That was unexpected." Leaf threw in casually.

Gary nodded in response, a slow, not completely sure response. "Didn't think I'd ever see her again."

Leaf wanted to say that she never thought she would meet the woman that her best friend had spent about three years of his life infatuated by. But that might have been slightly insensitive and inappropriate so she kept her mouth shut.

"Where to now?" She asked instead. "What did Daisy want?"

"I text Daisy to call me. I just wanted to leave." Gary explained candidly.

Leaf decided not to question why but just went with it. She was sure he had his reasons and right now, they were insignificant. What was significant was what Anna had said in their short talk. There was something that raised questions in her head.

* * *

There was nothing like sitting in front of an open fire with a cup of hot tea and a blanket. All that was missing was a good movie and snow lying on the ground outside.

Except now was not an appropriate time for that. Gary had been a bit on the quiet side since they returned and Leaf did not know what to say. She wanted to ask him if he was okay and snoop into his mind, find out what exactly he thought of Anna or even felt towards her. But she was somewhat certain that he was not in the mood to talk, even if it was just to say "I'm not hungry" properly when asked why he was not eating much of his dinner by Daisy.

Leaf leant back so that her back rested against the front of the couch and a cup in her hands. She had taken out the 'investigation file' as she had named it and looked at all the clues that they had gathered again when she heard a sound in the distance.

Leaf turned round to the only door of the library which was slightly covered by some crammed bookshelves.

"Gary?" she called out.

She received no verbal reply but instead heard a small creak of silent footsteps against the loose floorboards.

"Daisy?" Leaf tried but no response again. Not even a creak.

Leaf gave one last suspicious look to the shielded door and turned her attention back to the paper in front of her. Sometimes she wondered why they had not written the information down in legible sentences but incoherent notes. Looking at some of them now was like trying to decipher some ancient hieroglyphics.

Leaf took the sheet and held it up high, squinting at the writing then let out a heavy sigh and decided to call it a night after a few seconds. It was a Sunday night and she had school in the morning. She needed her sleep if she was going to be able to get up and pay attention in class tomorrow.

She gathered up all the notes and held them against her chest with one arm while her free hand carried the empty mug. She could feel a slight panic rise in her as she approached the direction of the door but she calmed down again once she could see beyond the bookshelf. Nothing was there. The sounds must have been imagined or from somewhere else. That must be it.

Leaf clumsily shut the door behind her and headed towards the kitchen. She placed the mug in the sink and rinsed it out with some water, casually looking out of the window and into the darkness as she waited for the mug to fill up. She did a double take though. She swore she saw something move outside.

At least she thought it was outside at first. She definitely saw something in the window but was it outside? The house is raised off the ground slightly and directly below the window outside was a shrubby bush. The figure she saw in the window was far too life-sized.

Leaf whipped her head round to see… Nothing.

She could not quite decide if she was relieved or not. Nothing could be a good thing but it could also be one of those things that comes round when you least expect it and bite you. And that was what Leaf was afraid of.

Leaf jumped slightly when she felt the cool water overflow onto her hand and splatter loudly into the metallic basin. She quickly turned the tap off and put the cup down, avoiding looking at the window, then left the kitchen and turned the corner leading to the staircase and she thought she heard it again.

A creak on the floor boards.

Leaf did not bother to turn round this time but sped up her pace, climbing two steps at a time. She just wanted to hide in her temporary room where she knew that if there was going to be trouble she could easily scream for help and be heard by Daisy and Gary who were respectively in the room next to hers and across the hall.

Leaf made it onto the landing no problem and turned to the hall that her room was at. She felt better about being so near a place that she had started to subconsciously think of as a safe haven, a place that she could feel protected by someone she cared about and someone who cared about her.

Leaf slowed then when she reached the hall but felt her heart thump hard then stop. The window at the end of the hall, directly across from her. The reflection. It showed… It showed…

It showed that she wasn't the only one standing at the start of the empty hall.

Xxxxx

So, I kind of realised a few things as I typed this chapter and looked back to the old ones. The characters drink A LOT of tea. And nothing just happens straight forwardly. But hey, that makes a good story, right? (Please lie if you have to!)

Anyway, I hope you like this chapter and I will try to update more often throughout the summer.

Oh, one more thing before I sign off. I want to thank everyone who has supported me and helped me reach 100 review!s (Triple digits, woo!) Thanks to everyone who reviewed! It was because I got reviews for this story that I kept it going after the first two chapters (back then, I didn't really know where I was going with this) and came up with an actual solid plot. So, yeah, thanks like sooooooo much to all of you peeps out there!

Lots of love and cuddle,

*silver-hedgehog


	20. A Surprise Visit

Where's My Dolly?

Okay, so hi. Here's the second of the summer update!

Emmm…. What do I have to say before you start… This chapters quite a contrast to the last in that it's very speech heavy. Think that's all I have to say so I shall disappear for now and let you get on with it!

Chapter 19:A Surprise Visit  


Leaf tried to let out a scream as she watched the figure in the reflection move closer to her unmoving body only to have it muffled by her unexpectedly soft hands.

"Quick, which room is yours?" she asked in a hushed voice.

Leaf pointed as best as she could to the one on the right and the woman dragged her forward, opening the door and shutting as quietly as she could whilst trying to keep Leaf restrained.

"I'm going to let go of you but you have to promise not to scream. I won't hurt you, I swear."

Leaf did not know why but she felt compelled to believe this odd woman, after all, she had not hurt her. Yet. She let go of Leaf, who stumbled forward to firstly get away from her and to get a good look of her face in the dim room. The only light that illuminated the room was the bedside lamp in the corner.

"Who are you?" Leaf managed to choke out. "What do you want?" She glared at the immaculately dressed woman.

"I'm Dr Abby." She explained and then proceeded to give a brief apology. "Sorry about scaring you downstairs in the kitchen and in the library."

"That was you." Leaf said in tone that made it almost sound like a question.

"Yes, I snuck into the house."

"Why?" Leaf asked. Had this woman not heard a door?

"It's kind of a long story." Dr Abby started and invited herself to take a seat on the bottom corner of Leaf's bed.

"Well you've made yourself comfortable so I assume you're going to explain?"

"Yes." Dr Abby replied then drew in a deep breath before she started her story. "I got a call on Saturday from Professor Ivy, something about two kids coming over to the lab to ask about the project. She sounded quite panicky so that's all I gathered. But unfortunately, when she called Professor Oak was there too and he may have heard a few things from the conversation. He reminded me of a few things and suggested I not tell you anything and just take a vacation."

"So you came here for a vacation?" Leaf quipped.

"He told me all about you. The attack on your house, your family, your friends." Dr Abby said, ignoring Leaf.

Suddenly the memory of everything that had happened in the past few weeks came flooding back into her mind, as clear as day. She had done a great job of burying all the painful memories of the past few weeks in a dark corner in the back of her mind.

"Obviously you know something."

Leaf looked at her and suddenly remembered she had dropped all the papers in the hall and wondered if it would be rude for her to run outside mid story listening to pick it up.

"You know what the project is, don't you?" Dr Abby asked.

"It's the dolls." Leaf replied without hesitation.

Dr Abby nodded. "You know where they are."

Leaf looked over to where the bedside lamp is and suddenly realised that the doll was not there. "I was sent one in a package a few weeks ago but it was weird, the doll, I mean. When I first got it, it had blue eyes but then when I showed Gary it had green eyes. But then Ivy told us about your lab and how you made a doll too."

"The doll you first saw, the blue eyed one, that was the doll that was from my lab. The green eyed doll was the one that came from Professor Oak's lab."

Leaf nodded comprehendingly. This was new information to her. "And they had brains from different people transplanted into them?" Leaf asked in a confirmatory manner.

Abby nodded. "The one from my lab had a brain in it from a man called George Little."

"He was a gang leader wasn't he?" Leaf asked.

Abby nodded again. "He was indeed. We didn't know it when we first got hold of his brain. But after the transplant was declared a success by the team and the doll started to behave weirdly we realised something was wrong. One of my team member's negligence has caused all of this."

"Negligence?" Leaf echoed.

"The project would've been up and running long ago if we weren't so picky about whom the brain came from. Usually someone on the team would do a thorough background check on the brain's deceased owner before we go ahead with the transplant but the new team member only checked if George Little had a criminal record and failed to find out he's a notorious gang leader."

Leaf's mind drifted back to when she had a meeting with Drew and Gary, when George Little was first brought up. She vaguely remembered it being mentioned that Little had been involved in several criminal offences but got away with it on every account so no wonder why he had no criminal record. However, anyone with a brain would probably start a job like research on someone on google surely?

Leaf then wondered if this new team member was Anna. She seemed like she could be a ditz beneath the brains. She did look like she had the potential to be the incompetent team member that causes a mass homicide attack in Pallet. But that was just Leaf's opinion…

"And what about the doll in the lab here?" Leaf asked. "That doll's brain?"

"I'm not entirely sure. I think it came from a man called Alexander Courtez."

"Gary and I thought that too at first but Gary's sister Daisy is dating Bill, the guy who deals with the computer systems that the organ donor centre uses and she managed to find out from Bill that it was a man called Hendry. Gary and I managed to do some research and found out a guy called Christopher Hendry who was also a gang leader in Vermillion, like George Little."

Abby looked at Leaf blankly. This was news to her. She had heard about the infamous Little- Hendry feud before but suddenly it explained why the doll behaved fine for a while and then not the next.

"Leaf, where are the dolls?"

"I think it's in Gary's room. At least it was yesterday. It disappears a lot."

"I know." Abby said. "That's how it got out of the lab. It wasn't stolen. It just upped and left."

Leaf nodded comprehendingly as if a doll leaving a lab on its own to go on a killing spree is the most normal thing ever and posed no threat whatsoever.

"How do we stop the dolls?" Leaf asked.

"First we need to track them down. Do you think you can get a hold of the doll?"

Leaf looks at the door and suddenly remember Gary's mood. "I can try." She replied then sauntered over to the door.

"Wait." Abby leaped up to her feet and grabbed Leaf's arm, stopping her from opening the door. "Don't tell anyone I'm here."

Leaf looked at Abby incredulously. "Why?" If she cannot mention Dr Abby's appearance to Gary then getting a hold of the doll becomes much harder.

"I'm not supposed to be talking to you, any of you in this house just now. Why do you think I snuck in."

"Fine." Leaf turned and opened to door then nipped across the hall, giving the door a quiet knock and popping her head in before Gary even had a chance to respond to her late intrusion. "Gary?" she called out quietly.

No reply.

Leaf scanned her eyes round the dimly lit room and saw no sign of the brunet. The bed was still made, the blinds were still drawn from the morning and his bag was still stitting at the foot of his bed untouched. She frowned at the sight and pushed the door open wider and called his name again but still she received no reply. Leaf pondered where he was for a moment then continued with the task at hand: retrieving the dolly.

Leaf's eye darted over to the small wooden bedside table, then to the other. Leaf walked further into the room and nipped into the bathroom. She didn't want to dismiss the slight chance that Gary would, for some odd and unknown reason, moved the doll into the bathroom.

The bathroom was clean and the shower cubicle, Leaf noticed, was completely dry. Gary's hair gels and wax and whatever the other bottles were were scattered over the spotless counter in a vague order – a sign that nothing looked out of place.

Leaf slowly backed out of the bathroom, out of the bedroom and back across the hall to her own bedroom, reporting back to Anna her lack of findings.

"Hmmm. Well, that's puzzling." Anna replied with a hand under her chin, making a thinking face.

"What do we do now?" Leaf asked.

"We need to track down the doll, and we need to get inside its head. Literally get inside its head."

Leaf looked at Anna. "And do what?" she asked, her voice rising as she spoke louder than intentional. "Rip its brain out?" Leaf added incredulously.

"Pretty much." Anna replied.

"Alright then." Leaf said.

Leaf had only suggested what she had because it seemed like the likely solution in a movie but the thought that that was the actually solution made her life feel… _Exciting_ for a change. The doll could appear at any moment and attack her.

On second thought, maybe the idea didn't appeal to her that much. Or at all.

* * *

Her pencil danced idly across her page. Sitting in chemistry without Gary really was a bore. The said boy had failed to show up for breakfast that morning and when Leaf went to fetch him he was nowhere to be found. He didn't turn up for homeroom either.

Leaf's head rested on her arm which was leaning on her desk, using the limb as sort of bony pillow. She had never felt so bored. If this was the reality of studying science next year then Leaf would rather reconsider her upcoming educational path post high school.

Her eyes were trained to her notepad and her mind was switched off. Her teacher's words were only recognised as mildly irritating sounds in the background, that was, until she said the words, "Ah, Gary! Come on in and take your seat."

Leaf lifted her head off her arms and looked over to the door where she saw him walk in and occupy the seat beside her.

"Where have you been?" she hissed at him.

"Just about." He replied nonchalantly.

Leaf gave him a suspicious glance. "Last night too?" She asked.

"Yeah."

"Well, I've got interesting things to tell you about last ni-"

"Leaf Green, I will not tolerate gabbers in my class." The teacher interrupted.

"Right." Leaf said then picked up her pen and continued on with her doodles. Now was not the time to tell Gary what she had happened last night.

* * *

Leaf tried to catch up to Gary who left class in an awful hurry even though they usually walk to their second period class together. But Leaf soon realised that he wasn't going to class. When she had arrived, he was nowhere to be seen.

"Where's Oak?" Drew asked as Leaf took her seat in front of his.

"Not sure. He's been acting a bit weird." Leaf replied as she unpacked her books from her bag.

"How come?" Drew inquired with a raised brow.

"Not sure. He's been that way since our meeting with the assistant at the lab yesterday." Leaf replied then sighed. She did not like seeing Gary like that. "How's May?" she asked after debating whether she should tell him about her surprise meeting with Dr Anna last night.

"She's getting better. Less ignorant now." Drew replied. "Sometimes she'll greet me with a blank look when I walk into her room."

Leaf gave Drew a look. Was it normal for Drew to say something nice in such an unpleasant manner?

Leaf sighed. It seemed like things had come to a halt despite last night's new found information. Gary was having a mood swing (secretly Leaf thinks he's PMSing), the dolls were nowhere to be found and according to Drew, May had not made much progress in her recovery.

Leaf had no idea what her next steps should be except from making an effort to cheer Gary up. And she knew exactly how to go about it.

* * *

She peeked out the window again. All the preparation for her surprise was in place and all that was missing was the guy himself. Leaf straightened and up and ran down the stairs from her peeping spot in her room window when she spotted said boy and leaped down the stairs two at the time.

She raced to the door and as it opened, located Gary's arm and dragged him back down the porch steps.

"What are you doing?" Gary demanded as he stumbled back from the unexpected heist, almost tripping down the steps as he moved backwards clumsily.

"We are going to go relax."

"Why?"

"There doesn't have to be a reason for everything." Leaf scolded, not even stopping to look at him or let him readjust his posture and face the correct direction of travel.

Gary put up no protest and just went along with her. It would probably be quicker in the long run. He turned to face the right way when Leaf had slowed down and loosened her iron grip on his now crumpled shirt sleeve.

"Where are we going exactly?" Gary asked.

"Oh, you know, just somewhere." Leaf said with a smile that could not be contained. "This way."

Gary followed closely behind as Leaf took a small, narrow path in an opening of a shrubby bush that was made by local hikers years ago when the main path to the woodland area of Pallet was blocked off. The forest was a nice quiet spot for relaxing and on hot days, it was the perfect place since the lake was merely a stone throw away. However, when the season is fast approaching winter and the skies darken rapidly, the area tended to become an eerie quiet more than a serene quiet.

They walked along the path and closer towards the direction of the lake where Leaf had set up some things for them to do whilst relaxing and thinking of anything but the doll. And even Dr Abby. And Anna.

Especially Anna.

"Ta-da!" Leaf said as she used her hands in a typically flamboyant gesture to present her straw woven picnic basket and red gingham rug that had been pre-set.

"What's this?" Gary said as he eyed the basket then knelt down and flipped the straw flap over, revealing plastic tupperware filled with food.

In front of them was a stagnant lake that reflected the rising moon's light and trees all around them. Last time they were here was when Leaf had just found out that her parents had been attacked and the linger memories of this in Gary's mind was stall raw and revolting. The image of the hiker's body still wavered in his mind. At least the cordon had been removed.

"It's just my way of saying lets kick back and relax." Leaf smiled at him as if she had no memory of the dead hiker. "But I've set a few ground rules."

"Rules? Isn't the point of kicking back and relaxing is that there are no rules for us to abide to. Unless you're going to make that tacky 'the only rule is to have fun' one of the rules." Gary said and cringes at the thought.

Leaf looked like she had just cracked the ultimate brain teaser. "That's a brilliant one! Why didn't I think of it!"

Gary looked at Leaf with a look of sheer mortification. "Please tell me your other rules won't be as cringe-inducing as that."

Leaf knelt down beside the basket, opposite Gary, with a serious expression. "Actually, my only other rule is that we don't speak of the… You know. Thing."

Gary puzzled over what the thing Leaf was referring to could be. "What thing?"

"You know, the thing." Leaf tried with her eyes widening.

"Not really."

"Oh, you know what I mean!" Leaf said, flailing her arms in exaggeration.

Gary leant back and landed onto his bottom. "All you've done is almost hit me and repeated the word 'thing' over and over again. I can assure you that if you were me, you wouldn't know what the 'thing' you're referring to is."

Leaf blew her side fringe up in frustration and plopped herself down too. "I meant the doll." She said huffily, "I mean, how did you not work that out."

Gary let out a light hearted laugh to which Leaf shot him a glare.

"You so knew what I meant." Leaf said as she pulled out a plastic box with some sandwiches of various fillings in it, a carton of orange juice, a bottle of water, a large bar of chocolate and her pièce-de-résistance, a sponge cake covered with chocolate buttons, fingers and butter-icing.

Gary watched as Leaf pulled out the item one by one and placed them precisely on the blanket. His eyes fell onto the sickeningly sweet and chocolaty cake that any girl would die for and wondered where Leaf found the time to make that.

"So is there any other reason for making such a cake?" Gary asked as he picked up a sandwich and took one bite of it then almost could not swallow it from the inch thick layer of the chocolate filling that he had somehow failed to notice.

"I just thought we should relax and get a few things of our chests. Mostly yours though." Leaf replied, "Let's start with your lack of presence in classes today."

Gary ate the last of his sandwich. "I can't answer that."

Leaf looked taken aback. "Why not?" she asked, her voice rose sharply as she did so.

"You were the one who said to not mention the you know what."

Leaf silently cursed her own rule. He sounded like he was willing to talk about it. "Well, let's remove the rule for a moment and talk about this. You weren't in last night. No one saw you after dinner."

"I went out last night because I thought I saw something outside our dining room window."

Leaf's eyes widened. So Gary had not been to find Anna? Her mind then thought back to Dr Abby who had snuck into the house after hours of surveillance from the windows before she entered and hi-jacked Leaf. Abby had stayed in her room last night but had disappeared by the morning before Leaf had woken up at the crack of dawn. It was a possibility that what Gary saw last night was Dr Abby.

On the other hand, the dolly had disappeared too last night. It was also possible that the thing he saw was the doll.

"What did you see?" Leaf decided to ask him.

"It was pretty dark so I couldn't really tell but I definitely saw someone lurking in our back and front yard. I heard them walk too."

"I think I know what you saw last night." Leaf said and Gary looked at her, waiting for her to expand on that. "You must've saw Dr Abby."

Gary looked at Leaf as if she had just gone insane.

"It's true!" Leaf said defensively. "She snuck into the house last night and dragged me into my room! We had a long talk about her research and our findings."

"And? You're only telling me this now?" Gary asked, still slightly disbelieving.

"Well if you weren't so busy playing Mr Mysterious then we wouldn't be here. And it seems we were right about pretty much everything. She confirmed that it was the dolls that were killing our neighbours. She even told me one more crucial thing."

"And what was that?"

Leaf took a deep breath and was about to reply when she heard it. She looked at Gary to make sure he heard it too and it wasn't just her imagining it.

Gary gave Leaf a wary look too.

She definitely did NOT imagine that single rustle in the background. Both their eyes darted to the bush to their right. The leaves were shaking more than what the wind could cause it to do and it was mostly focused at the bottom of the plant, a sure sign that it was not a natural phenomenon.

Leaf and Gary both rose to their feet, not taking their eyes off the suspicious bush.

Gary reached forward and put a hand on Leaf's upper arm, gently trying to coax her behind him but she would not budge. Her feet were firmly rooted to the ground.

But when they saw it, Leaf darted for it like an arrow being launched from a bow, ripping her arm out of Gary's grasp, straight into the fast darkening woods.

Gary watched as the seemingly impossibly sight just happened right before his eyes.

A twelve inch tall doll just walked out of a bush and ran deeper into the forest.

And Leaf has gone after it.

* * *

Well, hope you enjoyed this chapter. I also hope you take away the important message that is this: don't go near a bush!

But anyway, like always, hope you liked the chapter and don't forget to drop me a wee review!

Lots of love,

Silver-hedgehog


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